


Take a Racquet With You

by cyclecrossing



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, Horror AU, Kandreil - Freeform, M/M, M/M/M, Multi, Other, Post-Canon, Social Media, Zombie AU, survival AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-05-28 03:03:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 53,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15039260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyclecrossing/pseuds/cyclecrossing
Summary: Neil was free. For that short span of time, that precious golden almost-three years after Riko's death, Neil lead his life exactly how he wanted to. But Neil had never been lucky. He just didn't expect it all to end with a goddamn Zombie apocalypse.In which Neil is done running, and he's going to let the whole world watch.





	1. The Oblivious

**Author's Note:**

> No zombies for the first, like six chapters, just a bit of ominous foreshadowing. Kandreil is actually an established thing in this fic even if it doesn't come up right away. I'm a wimp and not very sappy/romancey so the Kandreil is basically b/c poly ships :) have more room :)) for angst :))))))
> 
> The exposition and the way I've set the future Foxes to be are heavily based on Nora's Extra Content and a few hc's of mine based on that. Just forwarning.
> 
> Also. Yes. I know. Starting a fic with a dream. How gauche. Terribly boring. Overdone. This fic is a coping mechanism, so I'm doin it anyway.

Neil was walking through a house. It couldn't have been a real house, he knew, because there were too many rooms inside to fit his image of the outside. That little incongruity niggled at his conscious, but he ignored it. Played along with it. He didn't have the coherency to realize that this was a nightmare and to end it in his unconscious state. He walked on. 

About half of the house was lit. Light filtered into the dark rooms from the halls, but Neil could not step out into the halls. Each doorway lead directly into another room. Neil didn't bother questioning it. He kept moving forward, trying to find a safe place to rest. It wasn't that he was tired yet, simply planning ahead. He was unable to turn around in place and could not walk backwards, but it seemed he did nothing but retread his steps. He found himself in the same places over and over again. 

There was a room on the improbable fifth floor that seemed promising, but Neil wavered. His companion also had to be taken into account, after all, and he wasn't yet sure how the companion would react to the room. He knew that he could keep quiet in here indefinitely, but would the other? Who even was the other?

It didn't help that his companion was an unknown quantity. A weight at his back, familiar but nothing he could put a name to. It was too many factors in one for him to properly compensate. He backed out of the room, catching a glimpse of his companion out of the corner of his eye in the process, but seeing nothing more than a flash of tan. It didn't mean anything. Anyone could wear a tan coat. It could have even been Andrew's hair. He didn't know. 

The longer he paced the house, the worse it got. The threat was closing in now, crushing him more and more with each moment. He needed to find a safe place to stay, and, once there, he wouldn't be coming back out again. It had to be somewhere safe enough to live in. But that room at the top of the house was the best option- though even that would likely prove insubstantial over time- and he didn't think his companion would like that. So he had to get out. Out of the house entirely. How could he get out? There was no ground floor, no staircases. It was a lucky glitch that he was even able to move between the upper floors. 

“I'd rather be in the clubhouse.” 

It was his mother at his back. And with that suggestion, they were out back in the clubhouse. 

But pretty soon, it became apparent that the clubhouse was a very stupid place to be. Neil had just seated himself on the dirty particleboard floor to sort through which of his keys he would need in order to survive when Andrew took his mother's place and tugged on the plastic porthole window, pulling it from its frame with ease. All he needed was an unimpressed sideways glance, and Neil was on his feet, hairs standing on end. They abandoned the clubhouse for a humid summer evening that was so ominous Neil nearly choked on it.\

The threat had reached them while they were in the clubhouse, and now it lay in wait, watching them from the nonexistant shadows. It didn't matter that the lawn was bright and open, ringing with the contented laughter of cavorting retirees and swarming with benign dust mot-like insects. The threat was here. But if Neil broke into a run, it would chase him like a rabid dog. It only helped a little that Andrew remained at his back. But Neil didn't really care for that fact either. Andrew did not belong here, either in this phony idyllic garden party or in the danger that loomed. 

Neil lead the way through the lawn, ignoring the feeling of unwelcome he got from the man lounging in his cream-colored polo shirt and the woman playing Frisbee with their Yorkshire terrier. There was a fence on the opposite side of the field and around the corner to the right was the only way out. Going through it was going to be extremely dangerous, but they had to do it.

His first sign of something amiss came when they reached the fence and Andrew fell far behind. When he turned, Neil saw Andrew staring at the fence, expression indecipherable. It wasn't a good look, whatever it was. Neil followed his line of sight to a lump that could be none other than another little white terrier dog. But couldn't see it very well. Why was it lying there like that? He approached and Andrew came up behind him again, clearly defensive now. 

The problem, it turned out, was that the dog's head was lying nearly a foot from its body. It was dead. That sight alone scared Neil more than anything in the dream had. Because there was an implication here; one that brought understanding just a little closer to home.

The dog wasn't the victim. 

The dog was the monster. 

Somebody had already been here, had been in danger of this, and had been forced to deal with it.

And where this one came from, there would be more. 

Andrew's strong presence at his back was the only thing that could get Neil moving, and the two of them forged on into what Neil knew to be their impending doom. 

Around the corner was a gaping doorway into a public rest-stop bathroom. It was the fancy kind, with a couple dozen bathroom stalls arranged in a strange honeycomb layout. The vice on Neil's stomach was both an accurate premonition and a self-fulfilled prophesy. He knew he was allowing his fear to shape this nightmare, but he didn't have the presence of mind to stop it. 

From every stall emanated an orange-red light. Andrew wandered a few feet to explore the righthand path while Neil took the center, inching forward with every muscle in his body tensed to the limit. Then Neil got a good look into one of the stalls and stopped dead. 

It was a woman, or it had been. She was braced upright, as though poised to run, but she was no longer alive. Her head hung from sinew. Then suddenly all around were bodies standing free in their stalls, heads parted from their shoulders, and the room began to spin while music played from somewhere far, coming closer, and- 

Neil woke up already exasperated, even through his cold sweat. 

A zombie dream? Really? 

*** 

If it had been any of his regular nightmares, Neil would have given up on sleep right then and snagged a cigarette to smoke on Andrew's usual perch by the window. But he was too annoyed with himself to let it bother him, and wound up sleeping for a good few hours more before Nicky's alarm awoke everyone besides Nicky himself the next morning. 

Neil shuffled aside to let Andrew climb off the bed, grumbling in solidarity when he heard Robin's groan from the bunk above. 

Nicky was quiet for the first part of their morning routine, but by the time the four were out the door on their way to the gym for their morning workout circuit, he was already chatting away at full speed. 

Something in the stairwell reminded Neil of his dream, and he frowned when Nicky directed a random question his way a moment later. 

“Your video game gave me a nightmare last night,” he said, ignoring Nicky's question. 

Nicky looked taken aback. “A nightmare? What about?” 

“Zombies.” 

Robin snorted. “Typical, Neil. Were you braining them with an Exy racket?”

“That would have been the better option. It was a stupid stress dream, except with zombies. Oh, and the last part had music from that movie we watched last night.” 

If anything, that just confused Nicky more. “Mulan?” 

Neil ignored Robin's second snort in favor of drawing up his limited memory of the dream. “Yeah. From that scene where she cuts her hair off.” 

Nicky rubbed at his chin then fixed Neil with a faux serious look. “Are you going to be okay if we keep watching Disney movies?” 

“Neil will be fine. I'm the one who will be in danger of blowing my own brains out if we keep watching them.” Robin treated them to a broad, innocent smile as they stepped out into the parking lot. 

“You'd do better with horror movies, ironically,” Neil mocked. 

Robin's smile vanished. “Maybe.” She turned around to walk forward, back facing them, halo of black curls ruffling in the limited breeze. Neil saw Andrew's sidelong look from the corner of his eye, but did not return it. 

Predictably, Nicky was the one to fill the silence as they drove to the gym, but, also predictably, nobody was really listening. Neil didn't regret his crack about horror movies any more than he did any of the hundreds of similar infractions he had made since becoming captain of the Foxes. He wanted to keep his players from forgetting the second reason they were here at Palmetto State University: to make themselves move past their pasts. He couldn't afford to let them push their traumas under the way Andrew and Aaron had. 

But making a joke about it? That was for Robin. That was something they did for each other. She wasn't upset; she just needed to think about it. 

Robin Cross was Andrew's replacement goalie, brought in on Andrew's own say-so at the beginning of the year. She was highly qualified for the Foxes in that she was recovering from the traumas of being a kidnapping victim, and not at all qualified in terms of skill. But Neil liked her. She knew how badly she needed to improve to make the line, and she threw herself into it with a vengeance. Neil even spared time in his and Andrew's evening practices to tutor her. Though, with the difference in their positions (and Andrew's typical complete unhelpfulness) it wasn't easy going. But she was improving. 

As for the horror movies, that came down to her captivity. Her obsession with Exy stemmed from limited spans of time in which her kidnapper allowed her out of her room to watch Exy matches with him. She had come to associate Exy with a limited sort of freedom, and had used it to good effect as a coping mechanism once she had gotten free and returned to her biological family. 

This was all known by the general public, if they cared to dig into old news articles far enough. She had been a high-profile missing persons back in the day. But what she tended to keep to herself was the smattering of horror movies that her captor had worked in among the Exy matches. Neil didn't know which titles she had watched (and wouldn't recognize them anyway, thanks to his own staunch avoidance) but he got the feeling they leaned towards the macabre, axe-murdering end of things, as opposed to paranormal. It gave her a tendency towards the morbid that made Neil distinctly uncomfortable, given his own background. 

Neil paused in the doorway of the gym only long enough to pick a circuit to start on, but it was long enough for one of the two sophomores to run up and hip-check him into the door jam before running away chortling to his friends. Neil ignored this and followed Robin to the weights, where Jack and Sheena were already going through the motions, Sheena spotting Jack. Both pairs ignored each other while Robin laid down and got started, which was an improvement from what it had been at the beginning of the year. Even when Jack had backed off of Neil after their fistfight the year before, Robin's drama with Sheena had brought the feud back to life until Coach pointed out that really, Sheena was undeniably at fault, and if they kept going after her during practice, they would both be doing laps until their legs fell off. They took that as the signal to switch to the cold shoulder, and the four had been at dubious peace since. Neil wondered idly what sort of a catalyst they would need to brooch that ravine. Maybe he would wind up calling Dobson in again. He hoped not. The fact that he was stuck running with her occasionally didn't mean he liked her. He just figured he owed his relationship with Dobson a little effort, for Andrew's sake. 

The rest of the morning went by smoothly, with Robin adding a higher weight to her bar than usual, Andrew almost keeping up with Neil on the treadmills and the underclassmen keeping up the workout with few impromptu goof-off breaks. A highly successful session, all in all. 

That amiable good mood managed to follow Neil through his classes later that morning and into afternoon practice, where it was inevitably replaced by annoyance at fatigue. Yelling at his teammates would never be his favorite pastime. Still, the team's improvement over the beginning of the year was obvious, and when their sophomore striker Gerald flipped Aaron's legs out from under him out of frustration, Jack was the one who did most of the yelling. Neil stepped back and watched, and when Gerald met his eyes around Jack, and Neil gave him his best unimpressed look. Gerald looked appropriately cowed and muttered out an apology to be ignored by an equally unimpressed Aaron. 

Neil and Jack made a pretty good co-captain team, if Neil cared to think about it. 

They got through the rest of practice in one piece and Neil spent most of the evening catching up on homework. They hit the court at nine that night, the time semi-permanently moved forward to accommodate Robin's early bedtime schedule. Keven was graduated now, so there was nothing to hold them back from switching up the times as they saw fit. 

Neil couldn't help the warm feeling in his stomach as he watched Andrew demonstrate the appropriate motions for a swing to clear the ball down the court to Robin. He couldn't help but feel that the world was getting better, day by day.


	2. Old Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, these chapters are shorter than I thought they were. Double posting so there's more to look at before next week. 
> 
> And, since I'm freaking awful at keeping up with the relationships in these things, I actually feel the need to remind y'all that this is still a Kandreil established relationship fic. So background Kandreil, basically. It comes up. Also, I only ever wrote two dreams into this, so this one is the last.

About a week later, Kevin decided to take a quick trip to Palmetto State. Not that most of the team knew. Neil smirked to himself as he thought about Jack's reaction if he ever found out that Kevin Day flew all the way out from his pro team in Wisconsin just to practice with Neil and Andrew for a few nights and to crash on his father's couch without ever laying eyes on the underclassmen. Or on Nicky, because Nicky couldn't keep a secret to save his life. 

Meanwhile, even though Neil appreciated seeing Kevin beyond the TV screen and the occasional skype session, there was a reason they started practice before he had a chance to show up unannounced. Kevin was making a royal nuisance of himself. 

“But she is not the same as Neil,” Kevin argued to Andrew while Neil and Robin watched from a few feet away. “She does not have his potential. If she even makes it onto a professional team, it will be a miracle!” 

“Pro team?” Robin muttered, bewildered. “I'm just here for the scholarship...” 

Neil patted her shoulder sympathetically. It was a bit disingenuous of her to claim it was all for the scholarship, but self-betterment after suffering extreme trauma apparently didn't have the right ring to her. She never wanted to claim that as the real reason. 

“She won't be on a pro team,” Andrew replied, voice flat but clearly impatient. “But she will make the line by next year. That is all Coach is asking.” 

Kevin's eyes narrowed. “On a team without teamwork, every player on the court must be independently good enough to-”

“We have perfectly good teamwork,” Neil cut in, offended. “We haven't been truly bad since Coach drafted six players in one year. And even then it didn't exactly knock us out of the ranks. What's your problem?” 

Robin raised her over-sized goalie racket into the air before Kevin could react. “Can we get back to practice?” she asked, more a demand than a question. 

Kevin jerked his head. “You get off my court. It would not be 'practice' if someone like you was in goal.” 

Robin expected that, and she walked off the court without argument. This was the reason they always practiced with Robin in goal for the first two hours. That didn't lessen the sourness in Neil's stomach. 

“You don't need to fight about her every time you come,” he told Kevin once Robin had closed and latched the door behind her. “She's done nothing to deserve your bullshit.” 

Kevin cast him a scathing look. “She has done nothing to earn my kindness, either.” 

Neil let it drop, but he held onto his resentment when they filed off the court in the wee hours of the morning, Robin already dead asleep on the couch in the lounge.

When Robin had first begun to talk to Neil at the beginning of October, she had asked on multiple occasions who on their team was trustworthy. This was, in fact, the first real question Robin had ever asked Neil, asked for the first time after the junior girls took her out to Columbia and abandoned her on the streets as a prank. Robin hadn't wanted to seem weak by reaching out to Coach for help. So she contacted Neil, who called up Dan (who lived in Columbia to coach one of their high school Exy teams) to let Robin spend the night with her. Neil's response to the question had been the same every time she asked: “everyone can be trusted for something different.” That wasn't meant to be optimistic. That was to say that the Butcher could be trusted for brutality, if he were in a position to kill someone. The remaining Moriyamas could be trusted to make decisions based on their best interest as a syndicate- the trick being to know what they considered their best interest, and trust in that. Kevin Day could be trusted to lack sympathy in nearly every circumstance, but he could also be trusted not to go out of his way to harm someone. And Dan, to answer the question Robin had intended to ask, could be trusted to help someone in need, just as long as you didn't mind having her ask questions. 

Since then, Robin had thoroughly adopted that phrase, the “everyone can be trusted for something different”. She and Neil liked to lounge in the Green with Andrew smoking nearby and pick apart their teammates and other people in their lives, gauging trustworthiness and predicting reactions to sometimes asinine situations. As well as being fun, it seemed to help Robin calibrate herself. If she knew to expect Sheena to intentionally misguide her, then she knew not to ask her for directions. It helped her keep calm when she was forced to interact with her teammates every day. 

It seemed Robin had come to trust Kevin not to mess with her while she slept, just as she trusted Neil and Andrew to have her back if he- or anyone else- tried. 

The three of them proceeded past her into the changing room. Changing was quicker during night sessions now, since there was no-one for Neil to hide his scars from. Once undressed, Kevin leaned down to press a quick kiss to Neil's lips, then threw a towel over his shoulder and herded Neil towards the showers. Neil said nothing when Kevin stepped into his stall with him, Andrew heading next door. Andrew wasn't likely to join them unless they got too loud. He still preferred his sex partly clothed. 

As it was, Kevin was awfully well-mannered for someone who had just shoved Neil bodily into a shower stall. Neil wasn't particularly disappointed, still fuming just a little as Kevin scrubbed at Neil's hair as though any grime in it personally offended him. 

Finally, Kevin said, “But you see, when Andrew graduates, you will have no more good goalkeepers. It doesn't matter how good the strikers are, at some point you will no longer be able to progress when neither of them are even as good as Renee was.” 

Neil gave Kevin his best unimpressed look. Kevin opened his mouth to say something else,and Neil jabbed his index finger into Kevin's bellybutton, making him squawk instead. 

Andrew replied from the next stall over. “Robin will be as good as Renee. Nothing more.” 

“Thus ending this discussion,” Neil grumbled. “Now if that was all you wanted, get your own stall.” 

That was not all Kevin wanted, it turned out, but it didn't go far enough to entice Andrew. After, Neil left the other two alone in the locker room while he went to wake Robin, knowing it would take a bit of time (and possibly the use of Wymack's new spray bottle) to rouse her. Andrew took Kevin to Coach's first before finally returning the three to their dorm, where Nicky was already snoring in his bed. Neil and Andrew didn't bother heading to the roof. Though the roof was a special place for them, sleeping in the same bed tended to take the edge off the need for it. It was too late tonight- they always ran it too late when Kevin came to visit, wanting to make the most of it- and they fell asleep soon after laying down. 

*** 

Neil was on a bench. This had come about somehow, in some logical manner, but that part of the dream was insubstantial, and could not be called back now. It didn't matter. All Neil ever did was go forward. 

It wasn't uncommon for Neil to turn up in the middle of the craggy Arizona desert, though Neil didn't know why. He had only walked a few hours along one desiccated highway before he was picked up again on his way to Millport. Apparently it left an impression on his psyche, though. So here he was, sitting on a bench in front of a highway that didn't even live up to the standards of the one he had actually been on, peering down the road both ways in an attempt to see if someone was following him. 

The bench was sort of comfortable, though. Comfortable in that better-than-nothing sort of way. He felt open and naked without his bag or- he realized- any other possessions. His keys were in his pocket, which calmed him a bit, but his phone was missing and he had no food or water. Someone stood behind the bench. He needed to move but had nowhere to go. A threat loomed. No matter what the setting, Neil only had two types of dreams: where his father was there, or where his father was looking. 

A speck appeared on the horizon down the road to his right. He eyed it, noted it to be too far off to define any features, and went back to gazing at the keys in his lap and worrying. The next time he looked up, the creature had come close enough to be distinguished as human-shaped. Neil frowned at it, but couldn't see any details. Neil did not feel that it was there for him at that point, but he did think it wasn't someone good. 

Neil stood up and looked around the bench. There bench only half existed, and Neil couldn't focus on the portion of it that faded into obscurity. The human-shaped creature down the road was clearer to him than the bench right before him. He could tell, however, that there was nothing for him to pick up, and that the presence behind him remained behind him now. He did not know who it was. 

The next time Neil looked up, the human thing had come close enough for Neil to tell that its unusual gait was a meandering limp, not quite the type of someone with a foot or leg injury. It sent his hackles up, and he looked down the other end of the road, finding it open and clear. 

But then he looked back and realized with a sinking feeling what the thing was. A zombie. One singular one, of course, but there was always that little implication: where there was one, there would be more. 

He started walking away from the zombie. After a moment, he wondered why he was walking if zombies didn't react to running like dogs or hit-men did. Then after he had been running for a while, he realized that he was leaving his companion behind. With a curse, he looked around to find them, but they remained safely at his back. It wasn't a nice feeling once he realized that whomever was at his back could be turned into a zombie and he would not be able to defend against them. The zombie its self was farther behind now, but having it catch up seemed an inevitability. The zombie never rested. It just kept coming. Eventually, Neil would have to stop and sleep, especially with his shadow companion holding him back. If they kept going straight down the road, they would die. 

But he couldn't get off of it. 

Neil was trapped in indecision for the remainder of his dream, and woke to Nicky's alarm. 

This time, Neil couldn't blame it on the video game. Nobody had played it while he was around for about a week and a half.

Neil was just glad the first stop of the day was the gym. He would have this dream worked off in no time. 

*** 

Neil was right to think that the dream would be put from his mind soon enough, and he had mostly forgotten about it by the time afternoon practice rolled around. He walked in a little bit late listening to Robin entertaining Nicky's chatter and was met with an unusually heavy atmosphere. He looked around, already looking to find the source of the trouble, but Wymack distracted him with a firm pat on the back for his trouble and ordered everyone to get changed out. 

Neil hadn't been at Palmetto State for four years without picking up the finite signals from his coach. There was a tone he used when he was as relaxed as he sounded, and another for when he was trying to cover for some distracting emotion. Tension, grief, whatever. It was his “something is amiss” voice. Wymack was using the latter. Neil exchanged a sharp glance with Andrew and resolved to find out what was wrong. 

But for once, nobody seemed to want to gossip about it. The most he got was a tense “it's not really a thing,” from Jack and some shrugging from the rest. Dissatisfied, Neil put Nicky up to the job of finding out what had happened and by the end of practice had been informed that the Foxes were reacting to a morning news report of a virulent new illness that had sent a hospital in the boonies of Louisiana into a panic. That news was, Nicky informed him, about a week old now. The new news was that more reports had popped up heading due east, which, Neil had to admit, basically meant it was coming towards them. 

Neil could get no more information about the nature of this illness out of Nicky, who claimed that it was too depressing to think about. So Neil took a quick mental inventory of ex-Foxes between Palmetto State and the reported sightings, and, coming up clean, pulled his phone out and started pulling up news articles. 

The phones- one to Neil and one to Andrew- had been a gift to Neil from Kevin a few years back, when Kevin got sick of looking at their cheep burner phones. Kevin hadn't yet had any money of his own, but it hadn't been hard to convince the other Foxes past and present to pool their resources as a Christmas gift. 

Andrew drove them back to the dorms to drop Nicky and Robin off before taking himself and Neil to Wymack's apartment. Neil kept his eyes on his phone the whole time, scrolling through worrying descriptions of high fevers causing hallucinations and ever increasing rates of quarantine. The nearest report came from a place in Florida not far from a team the Foxes had faced less than a month prior, before Christmas. 

But what worried Neil most wasn't what he saw, but what he didn't see. There were 404 errors popping up at an alarming rate considering the large news sources they came from.

Neil didn't consider himself a conspiracy theorist, but he was perfectly aware of the government's tendency to repress news that was likely to cause a panic. Neil found it perfectly reasonable to assume that this situation was, in some way, worse that what the news made it out to be. 

When they got to Coach's, they found Kevin ensconced on the couch, reading something on his laptop screen with his eyebrows drawn

Neil didn't want to waste Kevin's visit talking about things that could kill them. They had done more than enough of that Neil's freshman year. Neil dropped his bag beside the couch and flopped down beside Kevin, looked at the screen long enough to see that he was indeed reading a report on what was now being termed the “epidemic”, and pulled it out of his hands to set down on the floor. Andrew came up to sit on Kevin's other side while Kevin gave Neil an obligatory glare. 

“So. Zombies or another round of Ebola?” Andrew asked. 

Kevin sighed and reached past Neil to pull his computer back into his lap. “They haven't named it yet. The symptoms on one article don't seem to match the ones on the next, and they refuse to state how infectious it is. This vague reporting is going to be the end of us, if they do not even tell us if it's airborne or not.” 

Neil frowned at the article headline as Andrew motioned Kevin to pass the computer to him. 

“Three Driven Insane by New Virus in Shady Grove, Florida” He glanced at Andrew and said, “I know you were joking about the zombie thing, but the way they're dancing around this, I wouldn't be surprised if it's something of that caliber.” 

Kevin and Andrew exchanged a grimace- or, Kevin grimaced and Andrew's expression grew darker. 

Coach Wymack chose that moment to walk in, carrying with him a takeout dinner for one. He raised an eyebrow at the three on his couch. 

“I didn't get you anything. You'll have to get your own food.” 

Kevin glared at the carton in Coach's hand. “You have heard about this epidemic in the south, haven't you? Is it really wise to be eating out right now?” 

“It hasn't even hit the state yet. Don't get your panties in a bunch. And don't go getting my team worked up over nothing,” he added with a pointed look before walking off down the hall, shutting the study door behind him. 

Kevin turned to Neil with scowl. “This will end badly. Nobody will listen to me until someone is infected, and by then it will be too late.” 

Neil shrugged back, knowing it was probably true, but not having a proper response. 

Kevin grumbled to himself as he accepted his laptop back from Andrew, but the subject was dropped there for the night. The three wound up ordering out after all and the epidemic was put from their minds as they hit the court that night. 

*** 

Kevin boarded his flight back to Wisconsin late the next morning while Neil and Andrew were in class. They exchanged parting texts before Kevin boarded and Neil found himself opening his phone to stare at Kevin's last text during his free period later that day. It was nothing more than a fond “and keep your ass out of trouble”, but Neil felt an odd twinge when he looked at it. The news of an epidemic had him on edge, and it calmed his nerves not a bit to have Kevin so far away. 

Neil couldn't seem to put his phone down in favor of his homework, so instead he found himself thumbing through various social media accounts that some Fox or another had set up for him when he first got the phone. Somehow, the only one he ever seemed to log onto on his own was his Facebook, and that was only so he could access the Fox's various group chats. 

So that was where he went first, though the only new messages since he checked before bed last night were a picture of a pigeon taking a dump on Andrew's car, courtesy of Nicky, and a congratulations for the good shot from Matt. Since there hadn't been any white smudges on the car when they left for practice that morning, Neil assumed Nicky had cleaned it up. 

Neil considered sending a message asking what everyone thought about the epidemic, but Coach's warning not to get everyone worked up over it stopped him. He set his phone down and went back to his homework, but he was too keyed up to focus properly. So he picked his phone back up and this time logged onto this twitter account. He managed to successfully kill the remainder of his free period, ignore most of his next two classes and get all the way through lunch with his phone out, doing what he always did on twitter. According to Matt, it was called “throwing shade” while Nicky favored the term “roasting”. Halfway through a good-natured “roast off” with Laila McDermott from the USC Trojans, Neil received to nearly identical texts, one from Robin and one from Dan, both saying something along the lines of “drag her, sis”. Neil wasn't sure what to make of that, so he ignored Dan's and sent Robin a thumbs up emoji. 

Neil logged off for practice and wound up not picking it back up again after Jack ratted on him to Coach for doing exactly what Kevin had warned him not to do that morning. That was his relationship with his twitter account, in essence. He logged on, picked fights, then was banned from using his twitter for the next few weeks. His following was pretty large for someone who only logged on occasionally. 

*** 

“It's canceled.” 

The team stared at Coach Wymack, uncomprehending, frozen with their travel bags slung over their shoulders. Wymack had his phone in his fist and Neil could see the muscle in his jaw jumping from across the room. 

Jack was the first to find his voice, and he responded with a weak, “Why is that, coach?” 

Wymack took a moment to find the right words, then said, “because half Austen's team is in quarantine right now. The first one was admitted this morning. They called in the rest due to exposure.” 

It took another moment for those words to sink in, then everyone was talking at once. Coach Wymack didn't even bother trying to calm them, simply stepped aside to stand by a pale-faced Abby. Neil watched his teammates work themselves up, then slipped through them to Coach, Andrew and Robin following behind. 

“We could use tonight for practice. Next week we're up against Binghamton. It wouldn't hurt to make use of the time off.” 

Wymack eyed Neil. “You're not worried about getting sick?” 

Neil waved that off. “Of course I am. It's just that there's no use getting worked up over it, right? The best we can do is remember to wash our hands and not share food. We need to stay on track.” 

This was met by another silence and Neil realized that, for once, Coach didn't agree with that. 

It had only been four days since Coach had asked them not to rile the team with it. Only four days for Coach to lose confidence in their safety to such a degree. It was also only four days, he reminded himself, before the epidemic had spread from a three hundred mile square area between Florida and Louisiana all the way out to Austin Texas. If the disease came north as fast as it went west, the Foxes could all be hospitalized in days. They could be dead by the end of week. 

“They're dolling out evacuation notices down in Orlando,” Coach said finally. “There are entire communities down there that are just straight-up blocked off. They won't let anyone in or out. New Orleans is under evacuation, and they've been under pre-evac for a week now. That part only just hit the news.” He glanced up, noticing the rest of the Foxes had quieted to listen. His jaw tightened again, and Abby bit her lip. Coach continued, “we don't know what the hell this thing is, or how long it'll take to reach us, but it's not a question of 'if'. It's a 'when'. And judging by Austin's outbreak, it's going to be soon. I don't want us wasting any time here. If all of you want to spend tonight practicing, then we'll stay. But don't count on another game next week.” 

This was met by another silence. There was no precedent for this situation. What were they supposed to choose? 

“I want to stay and practice.” 

The astonishment on the faces of the team was nearly comical. Robin stood a bit taller and stuck her chin in the air, sticking by what she had said. 

Slowly, the rest of the team chimed in with more subdued agreement. The only person to back out was Aaron, and Coach let him go without a word, though Andrew's eyes tracked him as he walked out. 

Practice under the strain of the plague wasn't worth much, in Neil's book. There was less criticism, less effort, less focus. But the Foxes played on with their jaws set and determination in their eyes. Neil couldn't help but be a little bit proud of them for it.


	3. The Sleepless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foxy times ahead ft. Matt, Dan and Allison. Plus, y'know. The Foxes. 
> 
> Oh, yeah, and I guess for the social media thing to be plausible this fic is technically set in the future of the canon, so there's that.

Dan and Matt came down to Palmetto the next morning to visit. Matt didn't discuss why he wasn't still out in California with his pro team, and Neil didn't ask. He was grateful just to spend this time with them, if the worst was set to happen. 

Dan sat on one of the Monsters' beanbag chairs with Matt at her side, chatting animatedly with Robin about their plans for Neil's birthday party this year, never mind that it was still just over a month until “Neil Josten”s birthday hit, and they might not even live to see it. 

After all Neil had done to get death off his back, he didn't want to go back into that mental box, making all of his plans based on his imminent death. Anger at the universe flared up in him for a moment, but he quashed it before it could show on his face. 

Robin was laughing herself to tears over some pictures of the previous year's birthday blowout party when there came a demanding rap at the door. Neil glanced around to find Andrew still in the kitchen, then got up to answer. 

Allison stood in the hall, looking, if possible, even more formidably fashionable than she had the last time Neil had seen her. He greeted her with a nod and stood back to let her in. She cast an imperious look around before strutting in like she owned the place, causing Dan to cut off with a gasp mid-sentence. 

“Allison!” She exclaimed, jumping up and leaving Robin with her phone, which was a mistake, judging by how fast Robin started flipping through it once it was in her hand. Dan and Matt didn't notice as they ignored Allison's demand that they not crush her hair and wrapped her in a giant, three man hug, which Nicky promptly dragged himself and Neil into as well. Neil didn't think the others heard when the snap of a phone camera that went off in Robin's direction, and he himself ignored it in favor of not suffocating. The bundle of Foxes and ex-Foxes only came apart when Dan made a choking sound and tapped out on Nicky's back, and Allison wasted no time in retaliating by whipping out a can of perfume and spraying Dan's chest with it. Somehow Allison wound up in a headlock by Dan while Nicky ran to recapture the escaped perfume and Matt egged them on. Neil cast Robin his best “you see what I have to deal with” face just in time for her to snap another picture, this one a selfie with the wrestling match in the background. 

Allison finally got free with a huff and this time successfully kept Dan at bay with an imperious finger in her chest. “If you don't mind,” she said haughtily. “I am going to go fix my hair now. And hello to you, too.” She swiped her bag up off the floor before marching off to the bathroom with as much dignity as she could muster with a platinum blonde rat's nest on her head. Dan grinned at her retreating back.

Andrew waited until Allison had shut the door behind her before venturing into the living room, armed with a large bowl of chocolate-coated popcorn. He dropped it between the two beanbags and took the right-hand seat while Nicky, Dan and Matt crowded around Robin in the left one to guffaw over the pictures she had taken. Robin's smile was an edged thing at the best of times, but the point was dulled by the fact that she was so immensely pleased with herself for the moment. 

Allison returned quicker than Neil expected with her hair already righted to pristine. She treated her friends to a haughty inspection, a few degrees cooler than her normal possessive survey. Neil felt a bit of the good cheer drain out of him at the sight. 

The upperclassmen must have spotted Allison's expression as well, because pretty soon the laughter had died down until the only sound in the room was the crunch of a beanbag chair as Robin shifted, ever restless. 

“Sorry to cut the merry-making short,” Allison said in clipped tones, “but I came all the way out here for a reason. You've all seen the news, yes?” 

“About the zombies in Florida?” Robin inquired innocently, glancing at Neil with a sly smile as she did so. 

Allison's attention snapped to Robin, eyes narrowing. “You think that's a joke. Well, obviously. Why wouldn't it be? Zombies aren't real,” she mocked. 

Dan and Matt exchanged a baffled look. “But they're not,” Matt said. 

Allison clicked her nails in agitation. “Maybe not exactly like they are in the movies. I don't know, I didn't get close enough. But I've been in Huston this last week, right up until they posted the level one evacuation notice. I saw one first-hand yesterday, and let me tell you, that thing looked like it may as well have been one. She even fucking bit someone,” she spat, shaking by this point. “I'm just goddamn lucky I was in a car at the time, or I would have been thrown in quarantine, too. Everyone on the street was. That's why I had to get out here immediately. I want you out. I want all of you out of the goddamn country because I never, ever want to see any of you like that. I've got vacation homes for all of you if you just leave right now.” 

The room was silent, even Robin frozen in shock. Andrew was the first to speak up. 

“This is the start of a zombie apocalypse.” 

Allison looked him dead in the eye. “Yes.” 

Andrew looked away with disinterest and reached to grab a handful of popcorn. Neil waited for him to respond, then nudged him when none was forthcoming. 

"Would you come with?" he asked, though he wasn't sure why he bothered. Where his family went, Andrew went. 

Instead, Andrew replied, “It will reach us no matter where we are in the world. There is no point in running from it.” 

“You don't know that,” Allison snapped, but Neil thought he had a point. With seven billion people on the planet, there wouldn't be many places secluded and protected enough to avoid infection entirely. They couldn't assume that Allison's money would get them into one, because nobody would know what they were until they were put to the test. By then it would be too late. 

“Wait,” Nicky chimed in, finally finding his voice. “Wait wait wait. Zombies? As in, blow-their-brains-out-to-kill-them, Dawn of the Dead zombies?” 

“Get with the program, Hemmick,” Robin said weakly. 

“I can't-” Nicky leaped to his feet, hands fisted in his hair. “I-I can't do- I need to call Eric. I'm going to go-” he left abruptly, fumbling his phone out of his pocket on his way to the hallway. Neil watched him go, then turned to Allison. 

“We need time to discuss this as a team. We can't just leave, and we-” he gestured between himself and the other Foxes, “-can't leave them behind. Can you find the rest of the line a place?” 

Allison waved that off. “Of course I can. And you know I won't be leaving Coach and Abby behind. Obviously I know what I'm taking on when I invite them. I was a Fox, too.” 

“Then you'd better to talk to them. They might want to call a team meeting.”

“Of course.” She cast another imperious look around, but her expression softened a bit with pain as her eyes rested on Dan and Matt staring balefully back at her. “Just don't let anyone bite you while I'm gone. I want to speak to them in person.” 

Once Allison was out the door, Dan let out a huge sigh and flopped back down beside Robin. “I'm reserving judgment on this until I'm totally positive this isn't a nightmare.”

Matt nodded in sympathy as he got settled beside her. “You've got to admit, the word 'zombie' just sounds too ridiculous to take seriously. I don't know how to take this."

“Better to assume the worst if you don't know all the factors. Or if you're disassociating,” Neil added, voicing his experience. Or maybe they were his mother's words. It had been long enough, he couldn't remember clearly. 

“I guess you're right,” Matt mumbled. 

“D'you think Allison would take the Foxes' family, too? I don't know that my parents really have a place to go outside the country,” Robin commented. 

“Oh, God, mine too,” Dan groaned. “You think they're leaving the country on a stripper's wage? Allison's met them, I'll bet she'll be willing...” 

“You know I've got them if not,” Matt said. 

“What about you guys? Any more surprise twins you want to get out of danger?” Dan asked, directing the question at Andrew, who barely glanced at her before shoving another fist-full of popcorn into his mouth

“With their luck they'll meet the third when he comes for their flesh,” Robin mused, earning an unimpressed stare that didn't bother her in the least. She smiled brightly at him and reached across Neil to get to the bowl of chocolate popcorn that Andrew had taken into his lap. 

Not for the first time, Neil had the odd sense of looking at himself from the outside as he watched Robin pop pieces of popcorn into her mouth and check her phone, no doubt texting with her parents. It wasn't as though she didn't understand the gravity of the situation. It was merely apathy. The ability to move on unaffected when something went down. Was this how Andrew and Wymack and all of those Foxes from his freshman year felt when Neil breezed through death and gore as though it were a mild inconvenience? A glance at the familiar odd looks on Dan and Matt's faces told him it probably was. 

Neil shook himself and asked, “Are either of you able to leave your jobs right now, before anyone gets hit with an evacuation notice?” 

Dan winced and Matt sighed. They cast each other morose looks.

“Not really,” Matt said sadly. “But games are getting canceled left and right. I've got one week after next, but it won't be a big deal, and if this keeps up, they're all going to be canceled before we can play them, anyway. If I have to cut contract to save my skin, then I don't think they'll fault me for it. Too much.” He looked like he would fault himself, though, and Neil knew the feeling. 

“I don't want to leave the kids,” Dan admitted. “I know Allison can't just bring everyone we've ever had contact with, but I'm never going to forgive myself if those little brats wind up dying horribly while I relax in a hot tub in New Guinea, or something.” 

“I wouldn't want to be in a third world nation during a pandemic,” Robin pointed out. “Go out to Romania and rent a castle to haunt or something.” 

“Shame we probably won't find a resort in Antarctica. They'd never reach us there.” 

“Ah, yes, we're going to farm the land in Antarctica so that we don't have to rely on resources shipped out to us from infected areas. Great plan.” Robin rolled her eyes. 

Neil frowned. “Is there any news of outbreaks in other countries so far? Shouldn't there be more places infected?” 

Everyone looked around at each other, none of them having an answer. Neil pulled his phone out and did a cursory search, but found no results. Not even in Mexico or Cuba, despite the proximity. “Where's Renee right now?” he wondered aloud. 

“Morocco. That's about as far from here as we're gonna get, I think. And the Peace Corps doesn't really keep them in heavily populated areas, do they?” Matt said. 

“Not always. Or, uh... I mean I assume they would do, like, natural disaster stuff in cities, or whatever,” Dan replied uncertainly. 

“The Peace Corps do both. They provide emergency relief but their focus is on infrustucture, which means a lot of time in populated areas. The point is to work with people, either way. But just to be clear, are we talking about Renee Walker here? As in, number nine goalie Renee Walker?” 

“Oh,” Neil said. “You've never met her.” 

Robin grinned sheepishly. “Never met Allison before this, either, but I wasn't sure I'd like her anyway. I want to meet Renee before I die. It's officially on my bucket list now.” 

“I'm sure you'll get to,” Dan consoled. “She'll want to come out and make sure we're all okay once we're settled, most likely.” 

Neil's phone buzzed in his pocket at the same time as Robin, Dan and Matt's did. Andrew didn't bother to look at his, but Robin's was already in her hand anyway, and Neil was- in the words of every underclassman- a busybody. Predictably, it was from Coach, calling them to the court. 

They met Nicky and a flood of underclassmen in the hall, some of the younger Foxes whooping and calling when they spotted the alumni in their midst. Nicky was no longer on his phone, but he was shaking from head to foot, and Neil felt the need to put a hand on his elbow to keep him steady. Nicky shot him a grateful look. Behind them, Neil could hear Dan and Matt inquiring after the season and how the Foxes were faring, but they dodged every question directed at them with a “you'll see when we get there”. 

Neil let it all wash over him, mind elsewhere. 

Coach met them at the stadium, looking more serious than Neil had seen him since freshman year. Allison and Abby were at his side, visibly counting heads as the Foxes filed in. Neil took another count for himself once they were all inside and seated. Even Sheena had deigned to put in an appearance, if only because she could never resist drama. Apparently this counted as drama. 

Coach didn't have many words to spare, it seemed, because once he had everyone's attention, he looked to Allison to explain without a preface of his own. Allison complied, telling the rest of the Foxes exactly what she had told the Monsters already. 

The underclassmen took the news a lot like Nicky had, some having to excuse themselves and the rest either too shocked to speak or babbling nervously among themselves. Sheena kept shooting questions at Allison, whose responses grew more and more terse. Dan and Matt tried for some damage control by talking some of the more panicky players through it rationally, emphasizing that Allison was giving them a way out. Not that it mattered, Neil knew, when the team its self was inevitability going to dissolve without a structure of games to play. These new Foxes had factions of their own. They would split by those when the could. That was not to mention the emotional toll of knowing that they had to leave some things behind, and exactly why those things would never be recovered. Neil watched over it all in silence, images of escape routes playing through his mind. 

This conversation had already come up during Neil's freshman year at Palmetto State when Renee and Andrew were plotting contingency plans. It had forced Neil to take a look at himself, and to change the way he operated. He no longer wanted to be someone who would leave everything behind to save himself. So he had changed. He would save all of his Foxes, given the chance. 

But now, when the time had come, it was more complicated than that. 

Wymack managed to turn the babbling in a constructive direction once the Foxes who had stepped out had returned. Most Foxes quickly agreed to Allison's arrangements, although most undoubtedly had no idea they would be staying at five-star resorts. Allison, in turn, gave her phone a quick look before agreeing to allowing three additional guests per Fox. The conversation then turned to who was going to donate their extra slots to whom, which then turned to how and when they were going to procure plane tickets. Nicky announced that if Allison's plans were to fall through, Eric had offered to put them up in Stuttgart, though he couldn't take everyone. Allison began checking for vacancies in the general area of Germany and Austria as the rest left to go pack and find plane tickets. 

Neil stayed behind as he watched the rest of the Foxes file out. Nobody questioned this, as he was often the last to leave, making sure nobody was left behind that he didn't know about. Robin and Andrew stood beside him, as silent as they had been since leaving the dorm. They watched him like they knew what sort of turmoil his mind was in. Maybe they even knew what the end result would be. They would both judge him, but neither would question him. 

But Neil didn't know the answer himself, yet, so there was nothing to be done about it. He shook his head and followed the rest out, the door locking behind them. 

*** 

Neil called up Kevin as soon as they were back at the dorms. From Kevin's grumbling response, he had probably seen this coming. He would have been shouting in denial if not. Neil passed on Allison's offer and Kevin quipped that he had more than enough money of his own and did not need her charity. Then there was a silence that Neil could not interpret before they hung up with the promise that Kevin would meet them wherever they were going. 

Neil turned back to the dorm to find Dan and Matt grabbing their backpacks. They caught Neil up on their plane situation, which was that a cursory check revealed almost no seats available for the next few days. They had decided to let the underclassmen and Allison get out first so that Allison could get them settled. Allison had selected a couple of resorts in Austria, after all. It seemed people weren't in much of a vacation mood. Dan and Matt were going to drive back up to Columbia tonight to get packed and warn Dan's students before returning for their flight the day after next. They each gave Neil a hug on their way out and told him to be safe. 

With the two of them gone, the dorm fell into an unnatural silence. Nicky was the only one moving to pack. He floated from room to room, bag in hand, throwing things in and pulling them back out again without really seeing them. 

Robin and Andrew sat on either side of Neil, staring off into space. Watching him without looking directly at him. Neither made any move to pack. 

Neil's hand went to his pocket, where his keys rested. They were symbolic of his home. A home he was about to have to leave behind, it seemed, Maserati and all. Would any of it be left if this ever ended? 

Family was more important, he thought. Family could make a home out of anywhere. Neil would have everyone with him, wherever they went. Would it really be running? 

Neil's thumb dug painfully into the key to Andrew's old GM. Yes. It would be running. 

Eventually, Andrew got up and announced that they were going shopping. Neil blinked at him before agreeing, and Robin silently invited herself along. They stopped by the other dorms to take requests, though nobody seemed to be all that inclined to eat. 

When Neil checked his twitter and facebook accounts on the way to the store, he found them to be under the influence of panic. Even so, that panic didn't seem to have spread to the greater part of Palmetto yet. Neil spotted only two shops hastily closed on their drive to the store, both of them pizza joints. They weren't going for takeout, anyway. 

Andrew's choices were a bit more extravagant than the usual ice cream pints and pasta (though they did wind up with ice cream in the cart anyway). He threw in steaks, hamburgers, plenty of fresh fruit and a slew of vegetables. Neil eyed the cart with the sinking feeling that this was because they weren't likely to be getting much fresh food in the coming months. They had to eat it while they could. 

Despite the late hour, Andrew immediately set about cooking up the steak and some of the veggies as soon as they returned to the dorm. Neil and robin gathered up some frozen pizzas and other miscellaneous goods to take to the other dorms. When they returned, Nicky had come out of the bedroom to hover like a ghost, staring at his cousin as though he had never seen him before. 

Finally, he found his voice and asked, “Are you guys getting packed yet...?” 

“We have a few days,” Robin answered for them. “Flight only takes off Monday.” 

Nicky shook his head. “But we should be prepared, right? I mean, what if someone in town gets zombified in the next few days and we have to go before our flight...?” 

Neil sighed. No matter what course of action he took, Nicky was right. “We should get packed.” 

Nicky vanished into the bathroom while Neil and Robin threw some things into their respective bags. By silent mutual agreement, they both packed light, only a duffel bag per each. Neil wondered if his stories of never owning more than a duffel bag's worth of stuff had rubbed off on Robin, but it didn't really matter. He did it because it was the smart thing to do. 

The four of them forced down their steak and potatoes once they were done, and only Andrew had the stomach left for ice cream. Nicky put on a lighthearted movie in the vane hopes of distracting them. The four of them drifted off to bed one by one, Robin going first and Neil going last. 

As Neil lay awake and counting silently to himself, he thought the only person in the room who would sleep that night was Andrew. 

He surprised himself by drifting off not ten minutes later.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooo longer chapter! (I almost got ahead of myself and posted the one after. Oops. I'm super psyched for that one tho guys) 
> 
> Also, thank you to any readers willing to put up with my baby steps into writing smut :P I suck and have never done it before

The evacuation notice was served the next morning. It seemed Allison had not come a moment too soon, as every flight in the nearest three airports booked to capacity in minutes. Neil and Andrew left Robin behind as they ferried three of the underclassmen to the airport early in the morning. Allison and three more rode in Coach Wymack's car, the last four in one of the underclassman's. With them out of the way, only the Monsters and Aaron remained. 

Aaron had not been on good terms with the rest of his family in the direct aftermath of their schism, but continued sessions with Dobson and time for reconcile had improved the situation greatly. That was to say, at least the twins had finally talked about why Andrew murdered their mother. Aaron seemed to have accepted it

Still, there was a necessary distance there that Neil expected to make this situation just a touch awkward. He was pleasantly surprised when they returned to the dorm to find Aaron and Nicky standing in the kitchen in tense but companionable silence. Aaron and Andrew nodded to each other without a hint of animosity. Neil checked the time and popped a frozen pizza into the oven. He placed himself in the window and opened his phone to watch the fallout of the evacuation notice from a safe distance. 

Dan and Matt returned to the dorms early in the evening, explaining that the traffic had delayed them by about two hours. It was far worse moving in the other direction, but bad either way. They explained that pre-evacuation notices had popped up all over the state, including in Columbia. If the evacuation notices hadn't been spreading faster than wildfire, things may have been different, but under these circumstances the school board in Columbia had elected to shut down the school system for the time being. Dan wasn't expecting it to open again. She had already been in contact with all of her players' parents, and was fairly confident that they all had somewhere to go, even if it was just going north. 

Andrew served them an early dinner which Dan and Matt both eyed suspiciously before digging in. Neil remained quiet through the meal. This wasn't exactly unheard of, but Dan and Matt wound up throwing him worried looks anyway. 

Near the end of the meal, Dan finally asked Neil what flight he was scheduled for. Neil didn't remove his eyes from his plate, but he had heard the question. The only answer he had was “none”. And he didn't think they wanted to hear that. 

Nicky looked from one face to another while Aaron scowled at them. 

“You're not-” Nicky started in disbelief. When nobody met his eyes, he choked out, “I can't believe it.” 

“What good are you going to do by staying here?” Aaron demanded.

Enough. Some good at all. Neil couldn't live with himself knowing what he had run away from. It would have to be enough to make it worth it. 

Matt looked like he was going to be sick. “This is too big for you to fight on your own, Neil. You know the Foxes still need you, even if they aren't playing, anymore.” 

“Don't be stupid about this, Neil,” Dan pleaded. 

Neil couldn't meet their eyes. He couldn't come up with a response that he thought would please them. He knew that the underclassmen still respected him. He might come in handy when they all started panicking at some point in the future. After four years with the Foxes, he was finally confident in the knowledge that at least some of them would miss him when he was a mindless flesh-eater. These were things he had considered already. They did not sway him. 

“He will not be on his own,” Andrew said, making Matt start. Neil caught the dawning horror on Aaron's face a moment before he started stuttering out his denial, because some things never changed, and Aaron wasn't always the brightest. Even Nicky hung his head in defeat. Andrew and Neil were a package deal. 

Neil refused to feel guilty as he may have in the past for leading Andrew to his death. Andrew could make his own decisions. 

Robin however, he had not expected. She chimed in by saying, “It'll take more than a zombigeddon to make us leave Neil, right?” 

Neil glared at her. “We got you a ticket. Take it.” 

“So? They'll find someone to fill my seat. I've made up my mind. I think I know about what I'm in for, and you're not going to convince me otherwise.” 

But Neil knew otherwise. She had been in extreme pain. She had seen the horror in movies. But she had never been forced to fend for herself the way Neil had, or the way she would have to if she stayed. How could he make her see that? 

Neil bit his tongue for now. He had a day and a half before the rest of the Foxes left. He would tray again later. Robin could slip out of anything, given the will to do so. 

Dan and Matt seemed to be thinking the same thing, except about him. They let it drop, but Neil saw that shiftiness in their eyes that said that this was not over. 

Dan got a call from Wymack after dinner, telling them all to come down to Abby's house to spend the night. He wanted them all in one place, he said. Neil found he agreed, and the seven of them got all of their things together to head down to Abby's, taking Andrew's Maserati and Matt's truck. Matt and Dan excused themselves to the front porch immediately after everyone had gone inside and nobody thought to question it. 

Well, nobody questioned it until Neil got a phone-call from a number with a personalized ringtone, which proved to be a very angry Kevin Day, who proceeded to ream Neil out for even considering abandoning Exy for a fool's errand. Neil explained only once that there was no telling whether there would be any Exy to play elsewhere before setting his jaw and letting Kevin's voice wash over him. He recognized that sharp edge as fear and let Kevin have his say, but by the end of the phone-call, nothing had changed, and Neil thought that Kevin probably knew that. 

It wasn't the last time he would talk to Kevin, he told himself. Phone service would no doubt hold out for a little while even after everyone had left. He would have his proper goodbye. 

Andrew may not, though. Andrew didn't always use his words to speak. A phone-call wasn't likely to cut it for him. 

Dan and Matt had come back in while Neil was on the phone, and now they gazed at him imploringly, clearly hoping that Kevin's boyfriend status had swayed Neil. What none of the upperclassmen could seem to understand about Neil, Kevin and Andrew's relationship dynamic was that none of them were swayed by the label of it. Neil had to ignore a certain amount of what Kevin said to maintain his sanity. That much they should sympathize with. 

Meanwhile, Coach Wymack had caught onto the situation and was watching Neil with narrowed eyes. Abby was about two seconds away from catching on herself, and suddenly the room was too small for Neil. He thought he mumbled some sort of excuse, but the door was far more important right now. When he turned to close the door behind him, he found Andrew in the way. 

That was good. They needed to talk. 

Even so, they shared a comfortable silence with the cigarettes between them as they stared out over the quaint neighborhood under falling darkness. The place had an abandoned feeling that left a hollow in Neil's chest. Only two nearby houses had any cars parked in front or lights on inside. One house halfway down the block was actively packing their car as the two watched. 

Neil sucked in a deep breath of smoky evening air, letting himself imagine he was back in the world that existed two weeks ago. Then his thoughts drifted farther, to back before all of this, when his life fit in a carry-on and he was nobody and anybody all at once. It almost made him smile to imagine what a relief a zombie apocalypse would have been to them back then. 

Almost. 

Neil sighed and opened his eyes. Andrew was watching him in silence. Neil gazed back, memorizing the lines of Andrew's face, aware of how little time they had left. 

“You know I don't want you to do this, either,” Neil stated. 

Andrew gazed back, impassive. Then he stubbed out his cigarette on the railing and turned away. 

“There is nothing of use to me in Austria. If the world is going to end, I won't waste my time trying to find safety.” 

Neil nodded, more to himself than to Andrew. “But Robin?” 

Andrew was silent a moment. “Let her do what she wants,” he said finally.

It wasn't as easy as that and Andrew had to know that. He was signing a death warrant, but she still had plenty of future. Neil knew full well how Robin tended to idolize him. He did not need the guilt of dragging her down with him just because she thought he was cool for doing this.

But he kept it in for now. He could try to change her mind again- sic Coach on her, maybe- but he wouldn't bother trying to change Andrew's mind. 

They remained on the front porch even after both of their cigarettes had burned down to the filters. Night was just beginning to fall in earnest when Abby came looking for them, laughing it off as a nervous streak. Neil thought he understood as he took an automatic headcount when he walked into the living room. But everyone was accounted for, and nobody looked like they were coming down with sudden fevers. Neil let himself relax. 

Zombies, he marveled to himself. Actual zombies. 

The atmosphere in Abby's house that night was not what Neil wanted for his last few days with his family. Robin kept a distance from the rest of them that said the others had probably tried to talk her out of staying and she wasn't pleased with them over it. Dan spent most of her time in the living room staring at the mugs clustered on the coffee table without seeing while Matt alternated between sitting beside her in solidarity or pacing with his phone to his ear, talking to his teammates back in California. Neither of them seemed to want to approach Neil with his stubbornness hanging between them, and Abby and Wymack were just as stoic. Nicky had retired to the bedroom he was sharing with Aaron while Aaron himself sat near the front door, emanating resentment so strongly that Neil could feel it with his back turned. Pretty soon, Neil, Andrew and Robin found themselves holed up in the kitchen with a pan of milk on the stove and three mugs waiting, two with cocoa and one empty. It was the most comfortable place in the house. 

“I'm placing money,” Robin muttered. Andrew glanced at her to show he was listening and she continued, “I'm betting they've got a plan to tie us all up and force us onto that plane. And also that they'll use drugs to knock us out as a desperation move. Abby's probably got something for that, I think.” 

Andrew considered that, toying with one of his knives, then he said, “I'm not taking it.” 

Robin nodded. “Because I'm right.” 

“Because you're probably right,” Neil echoed hollowly. 

The three of them filled their mugs and drank in silence. Once Robin had determined that Aaron was no longer emoting in the living room, the three moved in to begin throwing around blankets to make a makeshift nest for the night. Abby came out with a few extra blankets and pillows and instructions on how to pull out the futon, then she drifted away again to the room she was sharing with Wymack. Neil watched her go, thinking of whether it was wise to suggest taking watches yet. He thought not. They could use every ounce of sleep they could get, and at least nobody had a room to themselves. 

Robin dragged Neil over to sleep next to her on the floor, where she had selected a soft spot of carpet underneath the coffee table. Neil glanced to Andrew to catch his nod and fell asleep some hours later to the sound of breaths broken by bad dreams. 

*** 

Neil thought he could understand why Andrew hated surprises so much as he blinked up into the livid face of one Kevin Day. 

“I do not care what it takes to get you to leave. I will swim with you across the godforsaken Atlantic Ocean if I must. You. Are. Leaving. With. Me.” Kevin shot a glare at Andrew's corner nest, showing he was including him. 

Neil blinked again from the floor, contemplating rolling over again to sleep. But now everyone in the room was awake and Kevin would probably kick him in the ribs anyway, so Neil dragged himself sluggishly upright. Still, he couldn't come up with anything particularly eloquent to say, so he just sat there staring at Kevin with one eye half-closed. 

“Devil begone,” Robin murmured into her arm. 

“If you think I am the devil, then you would not like to see what is about to come next, because I can promise you it will not be as kind as myself,” Kevin informed her. “And don't bother telling me you planned to go anyway. I've spoken with Coach already. I know what you're planning.” 

Robin inched out from under the coffee table a bit to see him better. “Are you plotting my wellbeing, Kevin Day? What happened to being a waste of space?” 

Kevin's nostrils flared. “This is not the same. A court has a limited number of players.” 

“So does an airplane,” Andrew pointed out, voice gravelly with sleep. Kevin shot him a livid look. 

Neil had been tired of this conversation since he ran through it in his head last night. So as soon as he had rubbed most of the sleep from his eyes, he got to his feet and wandered away from Kevin to see if there was anything he could cook in the kitchen. Kevin made a grab for him which he evaded with the ease of long practice. 

It shouldn't have been a surprise by this point that Wymack had already been awake for long enough to prepare a breakfast for the entire house plus Kevin with the materials Andrew had brought with them from the dorm. He was wolfing down his plateful at the table. Neil listened to Kevin still reaming Andrew and Robin out in the next room as he filled a plate for himself. 

Dan and Matt slipped through the doorway looking groggy and pale. They grabbed their own food without a word, but warmed up to a bit of chatter about the likelihood of putting together a refugee's Exy team overseas once they were settled. Coach thought there was a good chance of making it happen, what with the great Kevin Day chomping at the bit, but he wisely left Neil and Andrew out of the equation, even as Dan and Matt eyed Neil hopefully. 

Coach knew a lost cause when he saw one. 

The rest of the household came in bits and pieces, some grabbing their plates to eat at the coffee table in the living room, rather than pull up extra chairs in the kitchen. Kevin was the last to come, and he only did because he was still following Andrew, harping in his ear. 

Neil and Wymack watched Kevin with matching frowns. Kevin had two dark pockets under his eyes and his voice was somewhat erratic. It was clear he hadn't bothered to sleep last night. Neil wondered if Kevin had hit the airport as soon as he caught wind of their plans to stay last night. It warmed his heart a bit, if he was being honest. And he did try to be, nowadays. 

Neil rose from the table as Kevin and Andrew sat down. He filled a plate and set it in front of Kevin, who dug in mechanically after Neil forcibly placed a fork in his hand. By the time he and Andrew were done eating, his ranting between bites had petered off completely. He was clearly at the end of his second wind and crashing hard. 

With a sigh, Neil guided Kevin to his feet and steered him down the hall to the bedrooms at the other end. Wymack called after him to use the guest room, not Abby's "if you're going to do that". Neil didn't bother dissecting if that spoke for Neil and Kevin's relationship or Abby and Wymack's still elusive one. Not that Neil really cared one way or the other.

Kevin toed off his shoes and climbed onto the bed without much argument, but when Neil turned to leave, Kevin grabbed him by the wrist.

“Do not leave me alone,” Kevin pleaded, voice softer than Neil had heard it in a log time. 

Neil frowned down at him. “I need to check on Nicky and Aaron. I kind of left them alone last night, and-” 

“No, fool, not right now,” Kevin scoffed. “I mean in general. Do not let yourself die and leave me here alone. Do not take Andrew with you.” 

Neil swallowed past the lump in his throat. He didn't know what to say. More than anything, he wanted something soothing to say to Kevin. But he had nothing. So all he could say was, “I'm sorry.” 

They stared each other down for a long moment before Kevin finally relaxed his death-grip on Neil's wrist. “Then just promise me you will not run away while I am asleep,” he said, barely audible. 

“I promise,” Neil said. He could do that much, at least. 

Neil left Kevin to his slumber in time to catch Allison's call to Abby, which Abby had put on speaker-phone for everyone to hear. It seemed the flight out had been more crowded than their two layovers, and all of the Foxes had made it to Austria with all of their belongings intact. Allison lamented the fact that they didn't have any of the Monsters with them yet to translate for them, but they were getting by okay with the help of local English speakers and a translation app. It helped that they were staying in a resort town. Or maybe it was a resort that was nearly large enough to be a town on its own. 

When that call ended, Wymack ordered Nicky to find them some sort of movie for them to watch so they could pass the time without anyone bursting into tears. Nicky, in a truly uncharactaristic display of melancholy, completely failed to respond to the command in any way, prompting Dan and Matt to converge upon him with demands that he lighten up. It seemed to work a bit, though Matt was the one who actually picked the movie, in the end. The lot of them spread themselves over the room to mindlessly kill two hours on a bad cop drama that nobody actually paid attention to. 

The rest of the day went on similarly, with various people offering various distractions in a strong effort to keep from panicking or going into a mass depressive spiral. Neil looked away whenever the conversation was forced into something too light to be natural. He wound up absorbed in his phone, texting with various Foxes in Austria and checking all over the internet for more news. It seemed the epidemic had stopped spreading west, but it continued to move north at an alarming pace, particularly along the east coast. 

Kevin rose from his slumber around four in the afternoon only to beckon Neil and Andrew back into the guest room. For once, nobody commented on it. That might have been because most of them were busy in the kitchen, helping Abby figure out how to turn her house into a zombigeddon safehouse once everyone was gone. Only Robin remained in the living room, and she gave them a jaunty wave as they went by, which Kevin studiously ignored. 

Despite Coach's earlier implicit okay (or maybe grudging acceptance), Neil wasn't quite comfortable having sex in Abby's house. Kevin apparently had the same inhibition, but Andrew had not an ounce of inhibitions to his name, and both Kevin and Neil wound up shirtless before long. 

Neil hummed into Kevin's chest. He wasn't doing anything in particular, just sprawled out over him like a cat. But Andrew was, and Kevin had recently been banned from pulling Andrew's hair during blow jobs, so he was taking it out on Neil instead. Neil, for his part, found it thoroughly enjoyable. He gave another appreciative hum as Kevin flexed his fingers then readjusted for a better grip. 

Kevin's free hand wandered over Neil's bare back while Andrew worked little grunts out of him, sliding down until it found the waistband of Neil's pants. Neil shifted to cant his hips against Kevin's hand, but the effort was wasted when Kevin came a moment later. Neil was already spent, anyway. No need to belabor the point. 

Well. It would have been fun. 

All three were more amicable when they were done, though, for Neil at least, it left him dreading their parting even more. Maybe that had been Kevin's plan. Neil shook it off as he went to sit with Matt on the couch. 

Matt caught them up on the zombie safehouse plans while Abby and Nicky finished up on dinner. The three of them had apparently been in the guest room long enough for Matt and Dan to take a trip to the grocery store and back. They had loaded up on non-parishable goods and stocked Abby's kitchen with it while Abby and Aaron set up an emergency first-aid station in Abby's bathroom. Aaron and Robin were busy on Abby's computer, typing up a basic guide to using Abby's equipment. Before dinner was ready they had the guide halfway done and a printed-out sign reading "One key is under the rock next to the porch, the other is on the ledge above the doorway. Canned goods are in the kitchen, first aid is in the bathroom. Please take this sign down if you take everything. Residence of PSU Fox team nurse, Abby Winfield," to be posted on the front door on their way out. 

If everyone silently checked the news at different points in the day, nobody commented, and nobody discussed their findings. There was nothing new, anyways. More cases of quarantine, more speculation. That was all Neil found, at any rate. 

The flight was set to leave the ground at ten-thirty the next morning. The household slept even more fitfully that night, and woke to a warm and quiet morning. It wasn't surprising that the neighborhood should be so quiet. They were the only ones left in it. 

Tension ran strong as the cars- Matt's pickup and Coach's sedan- were loaded, but nobody bothered trying to talk Neil, Andrew and Robin into coming with them again. Even Aaron seemed to have replaced his resentment with grudging acceptance. Neil couldn't help but be grateful. 

By eight thirty, the house was cleared of all parishable, electronics unplugged, garbages taken out, valuables locked down in Abby's room and everyone was ready to go. Abby stared unseeing at the new sign on her door as she locked it before gently placing the key on the ledge above the doorway. Everyone turned away from the house, as though it contained too many bright memories to stand being looked at. 

Then it was goodbye. Neil wouldn't back down, but that didn't make this process any easier to take. Dan and Matt each hugged him like they knew they were going to loose him and they couldn't stand themselves for being unable to stop it. Abby was the same but for a crumpled list she pressed into Neil's palm without a word once they had parted. Even Aaron had a handshake to spare for him, eyes distant, but Nicky's hug was the worst. He was shaking from head to foot with suppressed tears. Neil was almost proud of him for holding it together as well as he was. 

Then Nicky met Andrew's eyes over Neil's shoulder and Andrew gave a nod in farewell and Nicky fell to pieces with great, gasping sobs. Robin lead him away with a hand on his back

Coach was right there when Neil turned towards the cars. His gaze was intense enough that Neil had to refrain from taking a step back. 

“I know you well enough by now to know that you won't be careful just because we tell you to,” he started. “But I also know you well enough to know what kinds of bullshit you can survive. You don't have to die out there. When the going gets too rough, I need you to cut your goddamn losses and get out. That goes for you two as well,” he shot at Andrew and Robin, now both standing behind Neil again. “I want to see all three of you back on the court some day. No matter what it takes.” 

Neil's words caught in his throat, making it hard to breathe. He could only nod. He knew Coach understood anyway. 

Neil looked up in time to see the complex expression on Aaron's face as he broke his staredown with Andrew in favor of climbing into Coach's car with Nicky while Coach and Abby climbed into the front seats. Robin accepted the last hug from Matt, and then the last man standing was Kevin. 

Neil took Kevin's right hand. After a moment, Andrew accepted the proffered left. A brief squeeze for both. Then they let go. Kevin stayed where he was. But Andrew gave him a push, and he climbed into Matt's pickup for the ride to the airport. He didn't break eye-contact until Matt had driven too far for him to see. 

They were gone. Neil watched the tailgate of Matt's bright blue pickup disappear into the distance, feeling worse with every passing second, until there was nothing left to feel at all. 

Neil look to Robin. It wasn't too late to take her to the airport. Neil still had an hour at least to convince her to turn tail and run.   
But her expression mirrored the void he felt, and he knew there was no going back.


	5. Panic and Regret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the only chapter I have written so far that switches perspectives. There may be more in the distant future, though. 
> 
> Guys. Not gonna lie. I like this chapter a lot

By mutual agreement, their first move was to throw their bags into Andrew's car and drive right back to Fox Tower. It was more out of comfort thing than anything else. They would do the real planning there. 

Robin and Neil seated themselves at the desks with their phones out to discuss their objective and their first move while Andrew ignored them both and started cooking something in the kitchen. Robin threw him a weird look, turned back to her phone quickly. “We're going to try to collect survivors?” she inquired. 

Neil sighed. “I think the best idea is to stake out a defensible safe-zone first, and then seek out survivors once it's established. 

Robin bobbed her curly head in agreement. “Do we start here in Palmetto? Would this dorm do?” she asked, peering around. 

“Not really. The layout isn't good for it. I would rather go with an upscale hotel or something. Someplace with a balcony over a ground-floor lobby. Somewhere we can shoot from.” 

“Shoot,” Robin echoed, chewing on the back-end of a pen. “We're going to need guns. Where do you get guns?” 

“Sporting goods stores, usually.” 

Robin quirked a half-smile. “You think there's enough cops in town to get us arrested for breaking in and stealing some?” 

Neil glared at the desk. “We'd better be sure, first. I don't care for police custody.” He shivered at the thought of being perpetually trapped inside a jail cell because the guard on duty was eaten by the undead. “In fact, I want to stop by the county jail some time soon. Just to be sure there's nobody there.” 

Robin nodded in sympathy, then tapped the screen of her phone a few times. “Should have some statement about it or something,” she muttered to herself. 

Neil let his gaze wander while Robin searched for a most likely non-existent document and found himself staring out the window, over the parking lot. 

A chill ran up his spine as he saw someone walking across the empty lot, directly towards Fox tower. 

But the three of them weren't the last three people in town yet, he reasoned. There were several more days worth of flights on the schedule before the airport shut down. There were at least that many people still around. There were always those who tried to stick it out, too. Old fogies who said “this is our home” until the disaster hit and they wound up dead. 

Neil was already turning into one of them, and he wasn't even going to get old. 

He shook that thought off as unproductive. 

Still, he found himself tracking the woman- it was clearly a woman, now that she was closer- in her progress towards Fox Tower. Then she was close enough for Neil to make out some details and he was on his feet in an instant, causing Robin to leap to attention as well. 

Neil called to Andrew that he would be right back, then hurried down the hall, Robin following curiously behind. He quirked a wry half-smile at the trepidation on Robin's face. 

“You wanted to meet her, didn't you?” he said. 

**

The air in South Carolina had never seemed so balmy as when she stepped out of the airport at Upstate Regional to hail herself a taxi. Or maybe it had, when she had first arrived for her freshman year with the Foxes years ago. But one thing was for certain. Never in all five years of her contract and in the two years since graduation had this thriving college town looked so dessicated. She sent up a prayer for the people who had to leave their lives behind to keep themselves and their families safe. Then she closed her eyes, breathed in, and let those trivialities slide away. 

Renee paid the inflated rate to the taxi driver and politely ignored the dubious glances he sent her way as she stepped away from the curb and started for her old dorms. 

Renee had not been in contact with any of her former teammates since the call from Dan asking her to intervene in Andrew's plans to stay behind. Renee suspected that Dan did not care about Andrew so much as she cared about Neil, but by now she knew better than to think that Renee would be the one to convince Neil to change his mind. She was hoping that if Andrew were to back out, he would force Neil to stand down with him, rather than endanger himself without Andrew there to protect him. Renee would have agreed with her had she believed that either could be talked down. Though she still did not have verification that they had remained unswayed, she was willing to bet on it. 

And if they weren't here, she would stay on her own. She simply knew she was more effective when working with a group. This would not be a pleasant task to undertake alone. 

Renee paused at the door, frowning. It was a wonder she could have forgotten that the building could not be accessed without an ID card. It had been so automatic for her to simply wave her wallet in front of the scanner that she had forgotten she was even doing it. Now she reached for her phone, contemplating calling Andrew to come let her in, but the doors swung open before she could get there, the answer to an unasked prayer. She smiled serenely into the bemused face of the Foxes' captain, Neil Josten. 

“Pardon the intrusion. Did you see me through the window?” She asked politely. 

Neil nodded, frowning at her. He glanced around the empty lot then beckoned her inside so that he could close the door behind her. Renee then found herself face-to-face with a slightly baby-faced and slightly more flustered black girl whom Renee recognized to be Andrew's replacement goalie, Robin Cross. 

Renee graced Robin with a kind smile and extended a hand in greeting. Robin stared at it for several beats before giving a firm shake in return. Renee could tell immediately that Robin found her intimidating, though whether it was because she looked up to her or because someone had informed her of Renee's bloody history had yet to be seen. 

“Come on. I didn't give Andrew a real explanation,” Neil said, already leading the way up the stairs. Renee smiled as she followed. Somehow, she doubted Neil knew how beautifully he had grown into the position of captain. He acted like a born leader. 

*** 

It was a stroke of luck that Kevin had managed to slip into a vacated slot on the same flight as the rest. It was a stroke of luck that they had managed to fit all of the Foxes- alumni and otherwise- onto three total planes, as well. Aaron appreciated that fact even if Kevin wouldn't. 

That was why it would be ridiculous for him to give up his own seat. But he couldn't seem to convince himself of that. Why? Why not? Why the hell not? He wanted to go, to be safe, to have Katelyn by his side. And she was, for now. Allison had given her whole nuclear family a free ride to Austria when Nicky forfeited his three slots. Katelyn was here, holding his hand, being as supportive as always. He was so damn lucky to have her. 

Maybe this was Josten's fault. Everything was usually Josten's fault, if you looked close enough. He was insidious. Got inside your head. Aaron closed his eyes and took several careful, controlled breaths. 

He couldn't. 

He couldn't do this. 

He couldn't leave them behind. 

Aaron was broken from his thoughts by Kevin's explosive sigh and the frustrated noise that followed. He cracked his eyes open to see Kevin pulling at his hair, gritting his teeth. Coach Wymack and Abby were both watching him with expressions of trepidation and resignation. Abby looked downright sick. Aaron had to forcibly relax his jaw to keep from cracking a tooth.

Enough time spent playing a full-contact sport with the Foxes made Aaron confident that it would be a punch to the gut for the rest of the Foxes if Aaron and Kevin were to leave at the same time. And Aaron didn't even want to leave in the first place. It was a fucking stupid idea. He couldn't believe he had ever thought of it. 

But he had, and watching Kevin fight his own internal battle shook him even more. Katelyn's free hand petted his shoulder, but it didn't help him as it should have. It only made him guilty for considering leaving her behind. 

With ten minutes until boarding, something in the crowd gathered at the terminals ratcheted up the anxiety level uncomfortably high. Even Keven looked around in confusion, searching for the source of the commotion. Everyone seemed to be staring at their phones or their computers, many gathered around each other's devices to read over their shoulders. People spoke in tense muttering, though shouts of disbelief or dismay could be heard. Aaron glanced at the nearby tv screens that usually showed news, but only the weather was displayed. Katelyn and Matt immediately turned to their own phones, but it was a moment before Matt finally found the problem. 

“Experts Warn that Epidemic Virus Causes Zombie-like Effect,” Matt read off his phone. He sighed, running a hand through his gelled hair. “Well. The cat's out of the bag now.” 

“What site is that?” Katelyn asked. 

Wymack leaned over Matt's shoulder to read while Matt read off the name of the website. Dan pulled out her phone to look as well. 

“Patients continue to move after heart beats have stopped,” Dan read. “Various cases have been reported of hospital staff receiving bites from patients. If skin is broken, victim begins to exhibit symptoms such as fever and delirium after approximately three days. Patients die within twenty-four hours of exhibiting these symptoms.” 

“So if one of those idiots gets bit, they have at least three days to call us up,” Wymack muttered. 

“But does it spread in other ways?” Abby asked, worrying at her sleeve. “If this is a virus, then it will also spread through standard germ-sharing. It's more than just the bite we would have to worry about.” 

“Article doesn't say,” Matt responded. “Let me try another.” 

“I'm reading NPR's. They don't say either,” Katelyn said

But a moment later, every eye was on Kevin, because Kevin had his jaw set and his bag slung over his shoulder. 

“Kevin,” Wymack warned. “Don't do it.” 

Kevin couldn't respond. He only shook his head, forced in a deep, shaky breath, and turned away. 

And here was another example of the preferential treatment received by Neil Josten. This team would never have let Josten go without a fight. Yet here they were, everyone from Katelyn to Nicky watching in silence as Kevin Day walked away from what might be his last chance to survive. Kevin Day and his spinelessness, his one-track mind, walking away from safety and Exy at the same time... 

He couldn't do it. 

Aaron couldn't do it. 

Aaron had his hand out of Katelyn's and his bag over his shoulder in a second. He didn't listen to the shouts that followed him. Not even Nicky's or Katelyn's. He just kept his eyes on the spot where Kevin had disappeared. 

Then Matt made him pull up short by shouting, “TAKE THIS WITH YOU!” 

Aaron whirled around just in time to see Matt throw something small and glinting at him. His mind picked up on what it was before it landed in his hand, but it took him another moment of dumb staring to realize that Matt had just given him the key to his truck.

He wanted to ask why, or maybe even say thanks, but his words caught in his throat. He looked up at Matt, who was far enough away that he had to shout. 

“You know where it's parked?” 

Aaron nodded. Matt gave him a less-than-enthusiastic thumbs up, and Aaron turned his back on them for good. 

Kevin wasn't hard to find, out on the curb. People were giving him a wide berth as he sat with his head tucked between his knees, hyperventilating. Aaron was tempted to pound him on the back a few times, but wound up in a similar position on the curb next to him instead. He wasn't sure he could bring himself to hyperventilate, though. He could barely move his limbs. 

Finally, Kevin's breathing slowed to a more useful pace, allowing him to look around at Aaron. Neither of them said anything for a while. Then Kevin fixed Aaron with a heartfelt glare. 

“Go back in,” Kevin demanded. 

Aaron hunched farther. “Don't think I can. The plane is probably boarded by now.” 

“That doesn't mean you can't try,” Kevin snapped. “Don't waste your life.” 

Aaron wanted to point out Kevin's hypocrisy, but he didn't have the energy. “Can't get back through security that fast,” he said instead. 

Kevin scoffed, but said nothing more. 

Aaron waited for a bit of energy to return before saying, “I've got a key.” 

Kevin was silent for a time. Then he said, “to what?” 

“Matt's truck.” 

Kevin sighed, then nodded. “Then we have our ride. Let's go.” 

Aaron stood and made his way over to the long-term parking after making sure Kevin was following. Despite having to dodge other vehicles moving into the lot, they found Matt's truck without much difficulty. Kevin didn't complain when Aaron climbed into the driver's seat, undoubtedly not knowing how terrible of a driver Aaron was. It came of a lack of practice... and maybe genetics. But at least Aaron was sane about the traffic laws. Unlike some people. 

The farther from the airport they got, the less traffic there was, until eventually they sped along the major arteries of Palmetto without more than a few other cars around them. The side-streets were completely dead. They passed a taxi driving away from campus, but thought nothing of that. Aaron only pitied the poor suckers who had to work during an evacuation. 

Goddamn motherfucking zombie apocalypse. Aaron still couldn't believe his luck. 

Aaron agreed with Kevin when he said that their best bet was probably the court by this point, but he looped by the dorms just in case. It was a good thing, because they spotted Andrew's Maserati in the parking lot of Fox Tower immediately. Aaron pulled Matt's truck up in the next spot over. 

“We won't receive a warm welcome,” Kevin said quietly. 

Aaron was entirely disinterested in warm welcomes. He had come to never expect them. “Is that why you came back? Because, you know. There are more flights going out today.” 

Kevin scoffed and climbed out of the truck, leaving his bag on the floor. Aaron considered his, but ultimately left it where it was in the middle of the bench seat. Which way was wiser if they had to make a fast getaway? 

Unfortunately, the only person with that kind of experience was Josten. And hell if Aaron was going to ask him. 

*** 

Neil stared at the two who had just walked in the door without knocking. His hand was halfway to the empty vodka bottle he had chosen as a temporary weapon. Robin let out a little “uh?” of surprise next to him. 

Renee was the first to respond with a gentle, “Are you sure this is what you want?” 

Kevin flicked her a disinterested look while Aaron gave her a tight nod. 

Neil frowned at them, but could think of no argument that wouldn't make him a hypocrite. So he put his hand down and turned back to his phone. “I guess they made an official report. Did you guys see it?” he asked. 

“We saw.” 

Neil nodded. “I'm not sure at what point there's enough people gone to go looting for supplies, but we can't wait. I've got some money. We're going to need more than my old standards if society is jumping ship. I think odds are high we can find all of our supplies between a sporting goods store and a liquor store. Abby gave me a list of things to grab from her office at the stadium. We should start there.” 

“Liquor store,” Aaron stated. 

“Yes. Bourbon is my inclination. It doesn't really matter. Anything stronger than wine.” 

Glances were exchanged, but Neil ignored them. They would find out eventually. 

“Then what's the verdict?” Robin asked. “Once we've got the stuff, I mean. Stay in Palmetto or not?” 

Neil was sorely tempted to say that yes, they would stay in Palmetto. But what would be the point? With everyone gone, it wasn't home anymore. They could start out in Palmetto, but eventually they would have to go where the action went. Neil wondered if it wasn't wisest to go south right away. 

“We'll stay here for now,” Neil said finally. “I want to say we should stay until the first zombie puts in an appearance. We'll decide what to do then.” 

Andrew chose that moment to step into the doorway. His eyes found Kevin and Aaron, but he said nothing. He had to have known they were there already, by their voices. 

“Food,” he said, then disappeared again. Neil got up immediately to plate himself what turned out to be a healthy serving of pork ribs. There was more than enough for everyone to gorge themselves, and Neil wasted no time in doing so. Memories of empty stomachs and weakened muscles after cars breaking down on the highway without more than a couple of sticks of jerky in hand had him overeating a bit. He was going to need every gram of fat his runner's body could put on in the next week or so. 

Everyone took another critical look around the dorms- theirs and the younger Fox's- in a search for more blunt objects they could use as temporary weapons. Neil pretended not to notice as Renee and Andrew huddled into the bedroom and split their knives between them. It sent a chill up Neil's spine to see Renee armed. Or, at least, to know she was armed. He told himself firmly to get used to it. He was going to see her with her serene mask off, one way or another. 

The underclassmen's dorms beget nothing they couldn't find in their own dorm, so they set out in both cars with a couple of empty bottles of vodka and a promise to watch out for each other. 

Neil felt something tug at his gut when he laid eyes on Matt's monstrous blue truck sitting in the parking lot alongside Andrew's car. It wasn't hard for him to put two and two together and realize that Matt probably knew he wouldn't be needing that truck as much as they would. To them, it would be an invaluable asset. They would be able to store all manner of extra gear and food in the bed of it. But Neil hated it. Seeing the truck Matt loved so much get destroyed would be physically painful to watch. 

It wasn't nearly as hard seeing the stadium barren. That, at least, was something Neil was used to. He didn't think about it as he tapped in the final code to get in, didn't think about it as he picked the lock to Abby's door while the others grabbed racquets from the gear closet. Didn't think as he pulled out bottles of peroxide and rubbing alcohol, multiple rubber tubes for tying tourniquets, all of the necessary equipment for safely pulling sutures. There was a bottle of high-dose Ibuprofen that Neil snagged, despite his plans to procure alcohol as well. There were bottles of ointments for sores and bug bites, bandages, even a bit of burn cream. Neil made a mental note to find some aspirin at a later point. Chances were good that a fever-reducer could save their lives. 

Neil took one last look around Abby's office, then, on a whim, closed and locked it behind him. If some desperate citizen could get past the security code, they could also break the lock for this room. 

The others weren't back out yet when he stepped into the foyer to look. Glancing around, Neil set the bag of medical supplies down on a couch and moved through the doorway, into the outer ring. 

Three years at Palmetto state had not changed how breathtaking the Foxhole Court was. Neil counted rows of seats as he memorized the shape and feel of every key on his ring. Never had another place made him feel so at home. He owed it his life. 

Neil didn't know how long he stood there with his palms flat on the Plexiglas, but eventually he felt more than heard someone come up behind him. Kevin, he thought. He pulled his gaze away from the court just long enough to confirm this, then went back to gazing at the empty stadium. 

Kevin drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. They remained silent for a while longer before Kevin spoke. 

“This won't be the last time,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “You heard what Coach said. We'll be back.” 

Neil swallowed past the lump in his throat. He couldn't tell Kevin that he disagreed. So instead he gave the court one last doleful look and forced himself to turn away. 

Andrew was waiting for them in the doorway, and Neil caught his eye for a long moment before moving on, unsure he would be able to leave if he stayed any longer. 

Neil found everyone else gathered in the lounge with exy racquets and some assorted bits of gear between them. Neil dumped the bag of medical equipment off at Robin's feet, then leaned against the couch to wait for Kevin. 

“Little tidbit that might do us some good,” Robin said absently, staring at her phone. “Sports Emporium just released a statement saying they're donating whatever goods were left in the stores in evacuated locations to the cause of fighting zombies.” She cracked a rather sharp smile. “Can I guess where we're heading next?” 

“I don't see how it matters,” Aaron grumbled. “They're all fair game now.” 

“But Sports Emporium offered theirs,” Renee said gently. “There is no need to victimize the other retailers if we have the necessary resources.” 

Aaron didn't look particularly cowed, but he did shut up. 

“We'll go there,” Neil said, ending the discussion. 

It didn't take long for Kevin to reappear with Andrew in tow, and they threw everything into the cars to drive off. Neil didn't look back at the court from the front passenger seat. Kevin said nothing from the back, and Robin hummed amiably, eyes glued to her phone the entire time. 

“Have you told your parents you're not meeting them in Austria?” Neil asked suddenly. 

Robin tilted her head to the side. “Nope,” she said, popping her “p”. 

Neil sighed. “Do it when we get to the place so Coach doesn't have to do it for you.” 

“I could just do it now?” 

“No,” Andrew interjected. “I don't want to sit through it. Wait.” 

Robin sighed dramatically but let it drop. 

Kevin, meanwhile, was eyeing her phone disdainfully. “What are you going to do when your phone runs out of battery?” He asked finally. “Or when they eventually cut off service?” 

“Who knows. If nothing else, we've all mastered the fine art of dissociation, no?” 

Neil shrugged. He seemed to have un-learned it since leaving his father's house- exempting certain circumstances, of course. 

Kevin grunted and let it drop. 

The Sports Emporium wasn't the first sporting goods store that Neil had thought of, mainly because he hadn't been aware that there was one in Palmetto before this point. It was lucky they had Andrew and his eidetic memory in the driver's seat, because it seemed that none of the rest of them had known either. It sat nestled in a small, run-down strip-mall on the east side of town, surrounded in cheep apartment complexes. Andrew pulled into a completely empty lot with Aaron driving Matt's truck in behind them. 

Predictably, the door was locked. It seemed the staff had fled town before corporate headquarters had made that decision. Unpredictably, the doors were old and rickety, with locks that Renee got open without much trouble. 

Neil eyed her back as they went in. She was handier with Neil's lockpicks than he was. He would have to take note of that. 

Everyone split up once inside. “Grab bags first! We need water filters and camping equipment. Anything that looks useful, grab it,” Neil called after them. 

“But only what we need,” Renee threw in. “Leave enough for the next group.” 

Neil doubted that they would be able to grab enough stuff to deprive the next group of anything, but he didn't argue. Instead, he checked the signs hanging around the ceiling for one that looked the most likely. 

Fitness Equipment... Camping... there. Hunting. 

Robin rejoined Neil when she spotted where he was headed. She had an industrial flashlight in her hand that looked like it could leave someone concussed. Not enough to bash something's skull in, but Neil approved anyway. If the movies were anything to go by, the zombies wouldn't be the only things they had to worry about. 

And there they were, laid out in neat cases or hanging behind glass. 

“Guns,” Robin said, nodding in approval. 

Neil eyed her sidelong. “I'm going to have to teach you how to shoot, aren't I?” 

“Oh,” Robin sighed. “Yes. Very much so.” 

Well then. “We'll start with the hand guns,” he said, walking the length of the case. “Not many here,” he muttered. “We can only use so many rifles. Think they'll have more in the back?” 

Robin shrugged one shoulder. “Dunno. Placing bets on these locks, though. They're not gonna be spring locks.” 

Neil sighed. “Yeah, we'll probably need Renee.” 

As though called, Renee materialized between two shelves with Kevin trailing behind with a sports bag already bulging. 

Renee's eyes passed over the gun cases, head cocked. Neil had sort of expected her to take on that vacant look he had seen when they discussed the knives his freshman year when she assessed the guns, but Renee looked as calm and composed as always. She simply held a hand out to Neil for his pick set and got to work on the nearest case. It took her a bit of doing, but eventually she got every case open, both for the guns and the ammunition. By that time, Neil had picked out five of the best rifles and was already filling two duffel bags (supplied by Andrew) with ammo for them. Everyone had assembled around them with bulging bags and random trinkets in their pockets. Kevin and Andrew had acquired new shoes and jackets. Aaron had even dragged a large tend along. 

They did a full inventory in the open space at the front of the store, to make sure nothing had been overlooked. Everyone had water bottles (which they went to fill up in the store's bathroom afterward) and three brands of water filters between them. Multiple flashlights per person, bags of extra socks, hunting knives, a whistle, a swiss army knife and a gun per each. Three archery sets with six quivers of arrows. Aaron had gone all out on the camping theme with a heat-reflective sleeping bag for each as well as the simple sheet blankets, basic tin cookware and a tiny gas-powered stove, complete with a mini propane tank. Neil frowned at that, but the equipment wasn't taking up much room so far. They had a tarp and one of those stretchy nets built for pickup trucks to hold it down with. They threw in almost as much of the vacuum-sealed emergency foods as were on the shelves and headed out to their next stop. 

“This one's going to be fun,” Neil said dryly from the passenger seat. 

Kevin grunted. “It's going to involve alarms, isn't it?” 

Neil twirled his new golf club in his hands. “You can stay in the car.”


	6. Snapshot (Take a Picture)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First zombie guys! How exciting!

By evening, Neil was ready to say they were fully prepared for the zombie apocalypse, at least in terms of equipment. Short of arming everyone with riot gear, that was. The bed of Matt's pickup now contained bottles of booze and two full gallon kegs of gas. The tanks on both vehicles were as full as they could be- which turned out to be costly, in the case of the truck. 

Even so, Neil was glad for the extra few days of dubious preparation. There was no saying they wouldn't encounter their first brain-eater tomorrow- or tonight, even- but Neil thought it unlikely. Their zombie-hunting gang had managed to run into a fair few people between the liquor store, the grocery store and the gas station. Those who were still around wanted to stop and chat, which usually resulted in Renee interjecting to save Neil the hassle. Neil wound up relegated to the car, but he did verify that most if not everyone was on their way out of town now. It seemed those who had intended to stay before were successfully scared off by the notion of zombies. 

By mutual agreement, the group wound up at Abby's for the night. Neil had the surreal feeling that nothing had changed when his phone went off on his way to the front door and he opened it to find a text from Matt, saying they had all gotten settled and asking if he was still alive. 

On a whim, Neil turned and took a picture of Matt's truck at the curb. He sent it to him with a caption saying, “We're ready for whatever”. In return, he got a “glad to see it” and a selfie of Matt and Dan with Coach Wymack looking harrowed behind them. Belatedly, Neil remembered that he had forgotten to make Robin call her parents. He shouted at her to do it now and got a half-hearted wave in response. If memory served, they were due in Coach's lap in the wee hours of the morning Austrian time. He was too tired to figure out what that meant for their time in South Carolina, but he thought they had a bit of time. 

Neil took a long look up and down the dying street before stepping through the doorway and bolting it behind him. 

“I think we should start with watches tonight,” he announced to the assembled living room. 

Aaron groaned, but Renee immediately backed him up. 

"Night and morning watches," she suggested. "I am willing to take morning. I've always been a morning person."

By that she probably meant she had always taken morning watches, but Neil didn't comment on that. "I'll take night. I doubt we need more than one person on watch at a time for now. We'll switch to two when things get rougher." 

Everyone agreed to that with varying degrees of irritation, but soon enough the others had settled down on the plush living room carpet. Some were even asleep an hour later. Neil doubted he would have been one of them even if he had avoided watch duty. 

When Renee rose to relieve him around three a.m., Neil didn't feel as wired as he thought he should. It was too easy to be lulled by the soft breathing of his friends and family, and by the sporadic texts sent to him by similarly sleep-deprived Foxes halfway across the world.

Neil fell asleep without even having to count. 

He knew that wasn't going to last for long. 

*** 

The next morning dawned bright and benign, free as an open stretch of road. Neil glared at the sun pouring in through the window as he checked his phone for casualties. 

On the news front, there was very little. The world was now entering a full-scale panic over the news of zombies and “Zombigeddon” was trending on all of Neil's social media sites, but after about fifteen minutes of searching, he decided they were just re-treading ground. He found a general inquiry sent to him by Dan and shot her a “no sightings yet” in response. He wound up sending a selfie with the others still sleeping in the background when she kept hounding him. 

Neil wondered how long they could keep up this level of contact before either the action got to be too much for him to keep up or the service shut off. He weighed his options of cutting contact now, while he was in a stable place of mind, or simply enjoying his resources while he had them. He chose the latter, reasoning that life was short, and his had always been shorter. He may as well not deprive himself. 

This time, with Renee as the morning watch, she was the one to prepare them all breakfast. Neil chowed down on sausage and eggs while he thought through their next steps. Everyone else around the table- aside from Andrew- were devoted to their phones for the morning. Even Aaron had a heartfelt phone-call with Nicky over the kitchen table. Robin finally dealt with her parents, and Neil didn't miss the way she turned her phone off afterward. 

When everyone was done and Aaron had started in on the dishes, Neil proposed his plan. 

“Everyone here needs to learn how to shoot, and shoot well,” he announced, to which nobody seemed to disagree. “Furthermore, we need to come up with a basic code system. I don't know when we would need Morse, but everyone should know basic hand-signals, at least. After that, I want to do a perimeter check around town. Drive the main drags, some side-streets, hit some government buildings. Robin and I agreed to loop by the county jail, just in case.” 

“They would have moved the prisoners,” Aaron told him. 

“Probably. Once we've done all that, we need to either find a good spot to set up shop here in town, or head somewhere with a higher endangered population. Palmetto seems to be in pretty good condition, right now. We might wind up going south.” 

Again, everyone agreed, albeit more solemnly this time. They waited only long enough for Aaron and Renee to finish the dishes, then they moved out. 

Given the lack of yard space behind Abby's house, Neil elected to have them drive to the nearest parking lot to practice. That lot turned out to be a part of campus, but it didn't belong to Fox Tower, and it didn't belong to the court. Neil cased it with a glance and found a place to set up the cardboard deer with the bull's eye from the sporting goods store that put his back to the stadium. 

Neil had to force himself not to shrink away when the turned and found every eye on him. He should be used to it by now, but obviously he still wasn't. He shook himself. 

Neil started by showing everyone the basic gun safety his mother had taught him, then moved onto form after not too long. That took longer than expected, but he had finished demonstrating by late-morning, and he had Robin and Renee taking turns on the target soon after. 

That was... their skill level was a problem. Neil hadn't honestly expected them to be experts the first time they fired a gun, but Robin wasn't even hitting close for her first few shots. Renee only did marginally better, landing her first shot wide but the next few less than a foot above the target's back, blasting bullets into brick wall. 

It struck Neil that his view of this was skewed by experience. Guns were to Neil what Exy was to Kevin. Neil knew intellectually that the others hadn't grown up with guns in their hands, but he hadn't really understood it until he saw it in action. He rubbed his temples, immensely grateful for all of this preparation time. 

It was slow going, but the first part of the learning curve was the steepest, and everyone was able to hit the deer by dinner time. 

For his part, Neil got everyone else settled with their guns and dragged Andrew off with him to pick up better targets and something to eat for the lunch and dinner. Andrew had packed sandwich makings, but they went ahead and bought hot food from the last convenience store open in town to bring back for the rest. Once returned, Neil picked up an archery set and went at it with a special foam target that should keep the arrows from getting damaged. He picked archery up quickly after finding a quick online tutorial, undoubtedly in part because of his good marksmanship. Bows weren't as straightforward as guns were, though. But maybe he just felt that way because the bow was new. 

All things considered, the early evening as Neil was just picking up a gun to show Kevin the proper form again was probably the best time possible for that first zombie to make its appearance. 

Renee was the first to spot it, having placed herself on unofficial watch duty while she waited her turn at a target. She alerted the rest with a shout that made them freeze, unaccustomed to hearing Renee shout. They followed her intense gaze to a human-shaped figure moving unnaturally along the wall of the building. It must have just come around the corner, because it was far, far too close for comfort. They should have noticed it sooner. 

If this person had been moving in any way other than the way it was moving, Neil would have thought twice. But this was a creature out of a nightmare. Neil pulled up on his rifle and shot the monster twice in the head a moment before the stench of ripe decay hit his nose. The rest of the Foxes fumbled their guns into ready positions while Neil took a deep breath and jogged forward, gun trained on the zombie's head the whole time. 

Up close, the creature wasn't the worst body Neil had seen during the course of his life. In one way, it was a bit nice that it was in one piece. Despite the smell, it wasn't bloating yet. The bullet wounds were clean in the side of its head, the shots having been taken from enough distance as to not create an exit wound. But the blood that seeped out was nothing like any blood Neil had seen come out of a recently moving creature. It was blackened, coagulated. The skin was translucent, and the mouth gaped open unnaturally to reveal a purple tongue and blood in the teeth. Real blood. The kind that came out of a living person. Neil backed away, eyes steadily searching the perimeter of the lot for the creature this one had created. 

Neil stumbled into the others before he could go too far. They had formed a semi-circle around it and were taking in the details with a wide array of expressions. Even Andrew seemed unusually intent. 

When this zombie didn't move again and no others appeared, Neil lowered his gun and reached into his pocket. He pulled up the camera on his phone and stepped forward again, capturing a good shot of the head wound before the smell drove him back again. 

“Moving lots,” Aaron choked out, holding his collar over his mouth. 

Nobody had any arguments against that, but they didn't last long in the next lot over as jitters ruined their already far-flung shots and shadows began to grow into nighttime. Renee and Andrew took the last turn while everyone else quickly packed everything away, and then they were back at Abby's. It was more of a lockdown than a place to sleep, Neil thought as he analyzed the picture he had taken of the zombie. Kevin, Aaron and Robin had immediately volunteered for first shift, likely knowing they wouldn't be sleeping any time soon, anyway. 

It was too soon for hyper-vigilance to set in, but Neil let them be for now as he laid down to rest. He would take the morning watch with Renee and Andrew. He hadn't intended to suggest sleeping in shifts rather than watches until things go really rough, but it made the others feel safer. 

Unhappily, Neil mused that he didn't feel any more unsafe than he had during his time on the run. In fact, he was pretty sure the zombies couldn't get past locks. He was actually safer. 

*** 

The others didn't need Neil to decide for them that it was time to start doing a bit of monster hunting. When they set up the shooting area in a new parking lot the next morning, Aaron, Renee and Robin announced that, rather than trading off every few shots, they would trade between groups patrolling or practicing their shooting. It was a good idea, and the three were off in Matt's truck before the impromptu shooting range was done being set up. 

Neil wondered idly if those three thought they were being good friends in giving Andrew, Kevin and Neil this time alone. “Wingmen”, that was the word. But he discarded the thought as ridiculous and went back to staring at Andrew as he shot at his target. 

Andrew was miles better than Kevin at shooting. Kevin needed every trick Neil's mother had taught him just to land near the target, but Andrew brushed off all advice and landed most of his shots between the second and fourth rings on the target, a percentage that improved visibly with practice. Neil was a bit impressed, now that he had things in perspective. Andrew would be a good shot pretty soon. Not as good as Neil, but Neil had been a natural even before his mother made him practice so hard. 

“It's not good enough unless it can keep us alive.” 

Of course, the best shot in the world couldn't keep them alive with bullets alone. That hadn't seemed to matter to Mary, though. 

Neil wound up staying behind when Kevin and Andrew went for their patrol because Robin still wanted his guidance (despite being the best natural shot) and Aaron still needed his guidance (despite not wanting it at all). He made them promise to let him go on the next patrol, though. He was slated to go with Renee and Andrew during the first shift the next morning.

Neil landed his third consecutive bullseye with his archery set and decided to hand it off to Renee for the time being. He milled about behind the three, contemplating what it would take to give everyone some moving target practice. His mother had always favored birds, but he didn't think they were quite that good yet. The thought disturbed him a bit, but he put it from his mind as he checked his phone for missed calls. 

There were a few texts waiting for a response, but only one missed call. From Abby. 

Curious, Neil hopped up into the bed of Matt's truck and dialed her back. 

"Neil!" Abby answered with obvious relief. "I'm glad to hear from you. I called earlier because I was hoping you could tell me more about the zombie you ran into yesterday." 

Well, it didn't beat having a nurse in attendance, but Neil thought it was going to be nice to have a nurse on-call. "It was pretty gruesome. What do you need specifically?" 

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Anything that stood out, I suppose. Open sores. If it was warm or not." 

"We didn't think it was a good idea to touch it, but I took a picture of it before we left," Neil told her. "And no, I'm confident it wasn't warm." 

"Oh. Well, definitely send me that picture. Anything else, though? Smell?" 

"Smelled dead. Actually, it's better that they smell so horrible; it means we'll know when they're nearby. Other than that, the blood seemed to be flowing, but I'm not sure how. It was coagulated. You can tell in the picture." 

Abby gave a small "eugh" sound on the other end that Neil thought was a shudder. "That's... really fascinating." There was a short silence, then she asked, "How are you holding up, then?" 

"Well, I think they didn't care for the zombie. We set up a watch night before last, but they insisted on having more than one person on watch at a time from now on. We're practicing shooting- I've been sending Matt videos- and that's going well, but now we're splitting the group so some of us are on patrols while the rest practice. It's... quiet. Very quiet." Neil was sure Abby could hear the guns going off in the background, but he was also sure she knew what he meant. 

"He shared the videos. But I was asking about you, Neil," she said in that tired voice that always gave him the impression he was being piteous again. 

"I don't know why I would be having any problems specifically," he commented. "This is nothing new for me." 

There was a silence on the other end for a moment. "Alright," Abby said at last. "Just... stay well. Keep out of trouble. Get some sunshine and lots of sleep, it's good for your immune system." Then she hung up, leaving Neil feeling suddenly very tired. 

Neil sighed as he thumbed through his pictures to find the one of the zombie. He thought it symbolic of his life that there was only the one picture of that trauma, buried deep in a pile of casually-taken pictures of Foxes. He shot the picture off in a text to Abby, but didn't put the phone down immediately. He glanced around- ever vigilant- then opened his twitter account. He typed out a quick tweet warning his followers that his content would be graphic until farther notice, then posted the picture of the zombie with a note asking if it anyone recognized it. 

Then he logged out and put his phone away. He wasn't sure why he was bothering doing something like that, and he really didn't want to see the response. He could only hope his account didn’t wind up suspended over it. 

Unfortunately, Neil had forgotten that the other Foxes regularly looked at his Twitter account. He had a couple dozen texts from Foxes both young and old before Andrew and Kevin were back for the day, all of them jabbering about that stupid zombie. 

Neil knew that seeing their first zombie was probably a big event to them, but all he could think of himself was the struggles to come. It reminded him of those dreams he had been getting lately, all with the same theme: where there is one, there is more. 

Andrew and Kevin's patrol had turned up more than just the usual nothing interesting. When Neil inquired after the blood on   
Andrew's right pant leg, Kevin told the story of pulling over in an intersection in a residential area a meager four miles away to investigate some blood splatters on the sidewalk. The blood had turned out to be from someone's abandoned pet dog, most likely left behind in their hurry to evacuate. That dog had been a Labrador, dead and unmoving, but there had been another one nearby that had been dead but moving. Andrew had reacted immediately by kicking it to the side in a manner Kevin described as "unholy- dogs shouldn't be kicked that way", but it had kept coming at them until Andrew finally got it under his foot and stomped its skull in. 

While Kevin was speaking, Andrew went to pull the body of that dog out from the trunk of his car. He carried it by the scruff of its neck and threw it into the middle of the semi-circle the Foxes stood in. It landed with a revolting "plop" and even Neil was quick to pull his collar up over his nose at the smell. 

Neil only had Kevin's description to go by, but if the other dead dog really had been a fully-grown Labrador retriever, then this zombie dog had taken down an animal easily more than twice its own size. Ankle-biters like this one were not made for the kind of physical exertion a Labrador was predisposed to, either. 

The dog was a shitzu, Neil realized abruptly. Like the two dogs from his earliest zombie nightmare. Neil could only hope he wasn't prophetic. He had too many nightmares that could not end well if brought into real life. Some things and some people were better off if they remained in their graves. 

"I don't think we should be handling the zombies any more than we have to," Renee said gently, eyes rested sadly on the dog's limp form. "And perhaps it would be in our best interest to begin burning any bodies we come across. 

Everyone seemed to agree to that, and Andrew found a nice spot in the middle of the lot to light the dog up while everyone else packed up the equipment for the night. They abandoned the lot with the burning carcass in the middle before the stench of burning hair could become overwhelming, but the mere hint of it was enough to have Neil's fingers itching for a cigarette. 

It was ironic, considering how Neil's habit for cigarette smoke had gotten its start. It had morphed and become something that belonged to him and to Andrew in the years since his mother's death.


	7. Set up Shop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I know Neil isn't actually this resourceful. He would probably go down his regular list of escape route options and forget most of the zombie v.s. human threat issue. But that would be no /fun/

Neil was glad to be on patrol the next morning. They finally did as Neil and Robin had agreed upon in the beginning and stopped by the county jail to check for inmates left behind, but there were none to be had. They wasted a good hour and a half just getting past the locks, but Neil's mind was at ease. He considered it worth it. 

Meanwhile, major news stations kept up running reports on the zombie situation, giving updates on an hourly basis. The greatest medical minds of the world were bending their considerable intellect to the cause of finding a cure, a remedy, any kind of relief whatsoever. This was being funded liberally by nearly every first-world government, as well as a generous public donation pool. Local news stations were out of commission, but the major stations reported that the zombie infection had bypassed most of South Carolina due to prompt and efficient evacuations and had gone on to hit North Carolina like a freight train. Meaning, all of the land in between was under evacuation, while several northern cities were in "quarantine". Neil shuddered to think what "quarantine" meant when placed over an entire city. Especially when the news clips showed images of armed soldiers in full military regalia stationed at the outskirts of cities. 

In fact, that quickly became the topic of discussion among the Foxes both here in Palmetto and overseas in Austria. It seemed to be morally incomprehensible to them that innocent people would be forced to remain locked into an area along with actual zombies, but Neil had predicted this from the start. From the set to Renee and Robin's faces, they had made the same assumptions. Neil knew Andrew had as well. It was Aaron and the other upperclassmen who seemed blindsided by it. 

The thing about Neil and his morality was that Neil had not had any more morality than he could get away with while still surviving when he arrived in South Carolina for the first time. He had been a blank slate- an empty canvas. The Foxes had been the one to paint the picture that was his existing morality. They still functioned as his moral compass in some situations. So it was inevitable that Neil would feel the horror of their drastic reactions and would, subsequently, feel the need to act on it. 

Then they had the perfect option. It was Columbia, which had gone overnight from pre-evacuation to quarantine, trapping in a third of the total population, including many of Dan's old students. Dan was livid, Aaron was distraught, Andrew could be found tapping an irritable finger against his phone as he scrolled his text messages. It seemed most of the employees from Eden's hadn't made it out, either. 

They hadn't yet set up the shooting range for the day when those reports started coming through. The Foxes had gathered in a new parking lot, outside their cars, glancing around at each other with that nervousness born of having something difficult to say. 

Finally, Robin heaved a heavy sigh and broke the silence. "We're going to wind up in Columbia, aren't we?" 

Kevin bit his lip and Aaron flinched, but Renee only nodded. 

"I vote in favor," she said. 

Aaron was quick to throw his vote in too, and Andrew and Neil threw theirs in together. Robin shrugged agreement. Kevin sucked up his inhibitions and gave a tight nod of ascent. 

They checked and double-checked their equipment. Everyone was to keep a bag containing their walkie-talkies and other survival essentials with them at all times. Neil had picked up a third hand gun as well as much, much more ammunition on their second trip to the sporting goods store, and those guns wound up strapped to the thighs of Neil, Robin and Andrew. Everyone besides Neil wore a hunting knife, and even Neil kept a couple of pocket knives within reach. Golf clubs and baseball bats were wedged into any crevice they could fit into, the Exy racquets wedged in with them.

While everyone else was milling around and checking supplies, Neil sent a text to Coach Wymack, explaining the situation and the plan. He asked Dan for the contact infomation of her students, but didn't recieve a reply. He hadn't honestly expected her to respond quickly, so he put his phone away and looked around in time to catch Renee wrapping her wrists.

Neil felt thoroughly concerned that Renee had somehow injured her wrists for the moment it took him to recognize the wrapping pattern from his boxing lessons with Matt. Renee hid her wrapped hands under a pair of gloves then turned to catch Neil looking. Neil flexed his own gloved hands. It was a good idea.

The group did one last loop of town before hitting the highway with Renee and Aaron following the rest in the truck. It was around noon when they left, and they expected to hit Columbia before too long, but the trip was even shorter with almost no cars on the highway. The closer they got to Columbia, the fewer cars there were. It was like being in the woods and realizing that all of the wildlife had fled, leaving you in fear of an unknown danger. But the two cars never lost sight of each other and that, at least, was one blessing. 

Then they got closer to Columbia, and they ran into their first physical roadblock. It wasn't difficult to bypass, as it was nothing more than a couple of gurney-horses with "Road Closure" signs hanging off of them. Matt's truck buffeted one on the way by, but otherwise there was enough space to get around them. Nobody expected the next roadblock to be as easy, and they were right. 

Neil took one look at the militarized blockades on the off ramps and sent Renee a text to not attempt to go through. They were going to have to find another way in. There were piles of maps in each glovebox, and Neil was pretty sure Matt's truck was four-wheel drive, so finding a nice place to off-road their way in didn't seem like such a bad plan at this point. But they would start by trying to find a frontage road, for the Maserati's sake. 

The first unguarded off-ramp let out onto a small two-lane highway that looked like it was ready to take them far, far away. It was five miles out of Columbia, but the slightly more detailed map in the truck indicated there would be a few frontage roads taking them back south again. Neil was glad they had grabbed the maps as they bypassed the first few turnoffs in favor of the one that took them the farthest south. The road in question was a frontage road that took them past active-looking farmhouses and eventually past a small commuter village with several industrial buildings hidden in the trees. The road was great; it would lead them directly into Columbia, and when this road came up inevitably blocked, it would provide a likely dirt road to backtrack onto. 

But then they started seeing traffic. The first few cars passed them with heads rubber-necking, but otherwise left them be. The next one honked. Their way of telling the Foxes not to go towards the zombies, Neil guessed, but annoying nonetheless. Before long, the cars turned into a steady stream flowing in the other direction, and nobody bothered the Foxes much anymore. 

Neil wasn't sure what he had expected to see when they got to the edge of town. A busted-down fence, maybe. But what they were met with were four heavily armed soldiers checking cars as they passed through, speaking emphatically with the contents of each vehicle and glancing around nervously, as though waiting for someone to catch them. Neil had never felt particularly warmly towards uniformed officers who broke protocol, but he had to admit, this was the better way to do it. 

Still, the roadblock was only open for outgoing traffic, and when they stopped in front of it, a burly, uniformed woman closed the trunk of a car she had been checking and approached theirs while Andrew rolled down his window. 

"This is a quarantine zone," she said gruffly. "You know what that means? Means nobody gets in without a permit. You folks best be on your way." 

"A quarantine zone means nobody should be getting out, either," Neil pointed out, leaning between the front seats. "I don't see why you shouldn't let us through if you're letting them out. At least we're not going to infect the place worse than it's already infected." 

The woman flinched, but barely. "Doesn't matter," she rallied. "We're not letting you in." 

Neil sighed and pulled back to reach into the duffel bag that had been under his feet the whole ride. 

There hadn't been many places left in the states where Mary's stolen blood-money had been stashed, but there were several overseas. When Renee first left Palmetto state on her journey with the Peace Corps and found herself in Lebanon, Neil texted her the coordinates and access codes to their safebox there, on the understanding that Renee would keep the money herself to donate where she chose. But, as fate would have it, the box contained both more than Neil remembered and more than Renee was willing to keep on her person, given that she would not be able to donate the money until she moved out of the area. She sent about a fourth of it back to Neil by mail, hidden in a couple of puzzle boxes and woven baskets from a local market and excused as a souvenir. The net result was that Neil had about eleven thousand dollars stashed in that bag in hundred-dollar increments. 

Robin watched closely as Neil counted out how many buyable officers were in attendance and counted out three bills for each, then multiplied by two for the second car. The woman was watching him with a concerned look on her face as he pulled back up and flopped the money so she could see it. 

"Are you sure you won't let us through?" 

She glared at him in suspicion, but accepted the money. "Kids these days," she muttered. "Spending hundreds of dollars just to see a goddamned zombie. You're going to regret this 'til the day you die, boy. That day's gonna come soon." Then she stepped back and marched to pull open the gate, letting both cars through. Andrew obliged immediately, and Matt's engine revved up behind them. 

The city wasn't half as chaotic as Palmetto had been when they first got the evacuation notice. The streets were empty as the two cars pulled through it, but the feel was entirely different. The difference was that this city wasn't actually a ghost town. It was teaming with life, but everybody was hidden behind shuttered windows and locked doors. Most of the citizens seemed to have locked themselves inside of their homes, though there were quite a few cars on the road. A suggestion, but not enforced, then. 

They hadn't really developed a plan for once they were inside, so they wound up driving around somewhat aimlessly to get their bearings. Columbia was quite a bit larger than Palmetto. Saving everyone in this town while the major exits were blocked and the smaller exit would soon be audited wasn't a real consideration. They were in a place of doing only what they could. 

Neil supposed it was a bit inevitable that they would wind up at their old favorite haunts, starting in their old favorite pattern. Andrew was driving the lead car, after all. 

Neil had never seen Sweetie's empty. He had never seen it in the daytime, either, come to think of it. He doubted it had ever looked like this since opening, though. The front door was boarded shut. 

Andrew moved on without any extensive pause, taking them straight to Eden's Twilight. 

This time, there were actually a few cars in the lot. Which was odd, since night clubs didn't typically open this early in the day. But Andrew pulled up alongside a little red two-door sedan and killed the engine as Renee pulled into the next space over. 

Everyone followed Neil's lead in throwing their duffel bags over their shoulders before following Andrew up to the front door. Andrew tried the lock once before pounding on the door, loud enough to be heard even if the music was playing. Which it wasn't, Neil noticed. It was actually a bit disconcerting. 

Andrew stepped back as the door opened by a crack, just enough for a burly man Neil vaguely recognized as one of the regular Saturday-night bouncers to poke his head partway out. He blew out a huge sigh of relief at the sight of them and threw the door wide to admit them. 

Neil brought up the rear. He only got a few steps inside before he stopped in his tracks, eyes darting around the place. 

The floor plan. The balcony overlooking the open downstairs area. The private areas on the third floor. Did this club have a fully-functional kitchen? Did it have storage rooms? What about the ventilation, and how many accesses were there? How could they go about blocking those off? Where did the water supply come from and was it defensible in terms of protecting it from illness? 

Neil knew the others were staring, but he couldn't help his excitement. How stupid, to not consider Eden's Twilight as their staging zone from the start.

Neil glanced at his curious companions and jerked his head toward the stairs. There was clearly nobody on the first floor. Everyone must be upstairs. 

Really, Neil wasn't surprised to see the stools and chairs piled up on the staircase, but it sure was annoying. Especially when Neil found it wasn't hard to get past them just by shoving things aside a bit. Nobody corrected him for going upstairs, so he assumed there really was nothing to be had on the first floor. 

Nobody was out on the floor on the balcony, but Neil saw signs of habitation behind the bar. He headed there, trailing the rest of the party behind him, and found the "employees only" sign at the edge of bar. He proceeded through. 

The room behind the bar turned out to be a kitchen- Neil was glad to see it- and was occupied by six people, three of whom Neil recognized. One of them was Roland. 

“Hey!” Roland cried, jumping up from his cross-legged seat on the floor. “You guys! What the hell are you doing here?” 

“Saving your ass, I guess,” Aaron replied dubiously. 

Roland looked to Andrew, who said nothing. Then he glanced around at the rest of them, looking not at all reassured. “Save us how?” 

There wasn't really a good answer to that. The roads were all blocked in, and getting these five twenty-something men and two women out of the city before the the soldiers at that frontage road were caught shouldn't have been a priority. And it wasn't one. This building was perfect. If these night club employees were ready to take a stand with them in here, then Neil was going to let them. Neil was going to focus on getting set up. 

“There is a road still open on the northern end of town,” Renee informed them. “If you wish to leave, you should go there before it is closed. It could be any minute now.” 

The employees glanced around at each other dubious, and one of the men- another bouncer, Neil thought- said, “where, exactly?” 

Renee gave him the street name and general directions, and he nodded in response. 

“Okay. I'm going to text my sister. She's got a family.” 

“You're staying in, then?” asked the bouncer who had let them in. “If you can get out...” 

“I'm not going to clog up the works,” the first bouncer said defiantly. “I mean, look at me, right? If someone's gonna be good for taking down zombies, who's it gonna be?” 

The other shrugged awkwardly. “It's just, y'know. Only the one gun.” 

“We have more,” Aaron offered. “Palmetto evacuated before things got bad. We had free range over the shops. We're pretty loaded.” 

The bouncers eyed him thoughtfully while Roland gaped. 

“Geez,” Roland muttered. “This is heavy. We're all just throwing around hero speeches and shit... What's the world coming to?” 

“An end,” Andrew supplied, drawing stares both scared and exasperated. 

Neil waited for someone else to speak and, when no-one did, started poking around in the kitchen, checking out their resources. The sinks were predictably industrial and the fridge was a walk-in. Electricity seemed to be working, but it must have been hooked up to the grid. It wouldn't last forever. The insulation on the fridge would be beneficial if they were able to turn it into an icebox, though. 

"What is the situation in town?" Robin piped up, breaking the silence. "The news stations have helicopters on it, but nobody can tell what's going on. None of the reporters were allowed in." 

It was one of the women who answered. "Honestly, everyone is so paranoid, so I have no idea how they didn’t catch it sooner, but they found it- that first one- in the mall, of all places, and it bit, like three people total. I heard they all went to the hospital, but then two more cases popped up on like opposite ends of town, and then they just multiplied. And the worst thing is that half of them couldn’t be identified! Nobody knew who they were, so we can’t say who’s been in contact with them or not.” She looked fearfully out the door into the main club. “They could’ve been patrons. We could all be infected.” 

Neil doubted it, but then again, how much experience did he have with zombies? “The gestational period is supposed to be three days,” he pointed out. “How long has it been since any of you came into contact with anyone besides the people in this room?” 

The employees looked at each other, shrugging. “About a full day since I have,” Roland said. “I mean, other than just walking by. We closed ourselves in around nine this morning.” 

Neil nodded. “Then we have at least two days before anyone starts showing symptoms. Once someone does, we kill them on the spot. As clean as we can. Any questions?” 

Nobody had any, but nobody looked happy, either. In fact, most everyone looked decidedly queasy. 

“Hey, you’re the mafia one, aren’t you?” one of the others asked weakly. 

“It only gets worse from here,” Aaron informed them. 

“Guess you know a good way to kill someone painlessly, then?” Roland asked with a nervous laugh. 

Neil considered Roland for a moment. Something in his expression made Roland loose his uncomfortable smile in favor of a horrified look.

“No,” Neil said slowly. “It’s never been a priority. But I can guess.” 

This was met by a silence that was only broken by the fan from the cooler. Neil didn’t have time for their discomfort, though. He moved around the rest to get to the door so he could take another look at the layout. 

“This is a good place for this,” he decided finally. “Really, I can’t think of a better one. We have a good layout, a kitchen, a bathroom, storage space and a place to lay out bedrolls. Show me how well the doors are locked?” He directed that last over his shoulder, not caring who answered. 

Andrew shoved Aaron aside and lead Neil out into the main area and around to the emergency exit on the far side of the floor. Neil was heartened to see the iron bar lying across the door as they approached, and when Andrew tugged on the door he saw the two locks on the door its self. There was a leaver labeled "emergency" in bright red lettering that could likely bypass the locks, but it was only on the inside and anyone coming through would still have to contend with the metal bar. The downstairs version turned out to be much the same. The third floor had no entrances or exits aside from the staircase leading up to it. 

Neil looked out over the main floors from the third floor balcony. If zombies were to bust in through the front doors, Neil wouldn't want anyone but himself shooting from up here. It would be too easy for the others to hit their own in the backs with the way the second floor balcony jutted out. At least at the skill level he had seen from the Foxes earlier. 

A glint in the window across the way caught Neil's attention and he looked up to inspect it. It turned out to be nothing but the reflection from a car going by, but having noticed it brought Neil's attention to the windows themselves. 

When there was no light coming in through them when the club was open at night, there was no reason to call attention to them. But they were very much an asset of the building, given their large size and the way they seemed to exist only up by the rafters. A second scan of the first floor confirmed that there were no windows down there. It was not unlike a warehouse in that respect. But it meant that the parking lot beyond was visible from the third floor like this without compromising their safety. Those windows could even be safely busted out in the event that they would need a little extra ventilation. Neil wouldn't try that until things got too putrid, though. No reason to let the cold settle in prematurely. 

"Hey!" Kevin shouted up at them from the second floor. "We're staying, yes or no?" 

Neil glanced at Andrew, who had been regarding the interior of the club with a hooded gaze. Andrew gave a bored nod and Neil shouted back in affirmation. 

"Then we're bringing the stuff in," Kevin called. 

Neil frowned at that. "Not all of it. What if we have to get out in a hurry and can't get to our bags?" 

Kevin threw his hands up in exaggerated frustration. "Then get down here and sort through it!" He turned away and disappeared under the over-hang. Neil started down the stairs, explaining all of his observations to Andrew as he went. Andrew didn't respond, but Neil knew he heard. With his eidetic memory, Andrew was probably the most important person to know these things. Neil thought he had probably already noticed, though.

In the end, there wasn't much to leave out in the cars. Each glovebox kept their maps and had a few packages of freeze-dried emergency food. Nobody knew if the zombie virus heightened senses in such a way as to make them able to smell the dried meat, but Neil didn't care to take chances. He decided that until further notice, they were going to treat the zombies like they were bears, when it came to food. 

Other than that, one handgun with ammunition remained in each car- in the footwell of Matt's passenger seat and inside the center console between the front seats of the Maserati. A water bottle with a built-in water filter in each as well as a handful of those thin heat-reflective blankets. The rest came inside and was deposited in the kitchen. 

Neil frowned as he contemplated the supplies on the floor, then moved into the area behind the bar to place a call. 

"Neil?" Dan asked on the other end. "You're not really in Columbia right now. Tell me you're not in Columbia." 

Neil sighed. "We actually are in Columbia. We're at-" Neil was cut off by Dan's cussing, but he bulled on. "We're at Eden's, and it's actually looking like the best place to camp out. Did you ever get in contact with your students?" 

"Most," she said in a bitter voice. "Two of them got out early. Only two. That's two out of fourteen, Neil. It's a goddamn travesty." 

Neil couldn't help but agree. "What are their arrangements? I can't promise that Eden's is going to be a better setup than what they've got, but if any of them are in trailers or something, it will probably be safer in here. I don't know how many people we can safely take on before endangering all of us, though," he said. 

"I don't usually get into their personal business, so I don't know about their living situations," Dan admitted. "But I can send out an offer. See who wants to bite. You might wind up with their families as well," she warned. 

Neil shrugged to himself. "I expect that. To be honest, everyone in here seems pretty capable, and I guess I don't really see the point of only saving people who could have saved themselves anyway. I don't mind a bit of deadweight." 

"Alright, I'll- hang on." There were a few scuffing noises and the soft drone of voices. Neil guessed she had put her hand over the receiver. "Okay, everyone wants to talk to you. Can I put you on speaker phone?" 

Neil less took his time pondering than bracing himself. "Sure." 

"'K. Gimme a sec." There was a bit more scuffing, then Dan said, "Alright, it's on." 

At once a cacophony of voices started up, calling greetings and demanding answers all at once. That pang in Neil's heart may have been homesickness. 

It had only been a few days, and Neil already missed them so much it ached. 

"One at a time," he deadpanned. 

"Dibs!" cried Matt's voice. "Neil, what's it like in Columbia right now?" 

Neil glanced up at the window, but he could only see the sparsely clouded sky. "Not too hot today, but I wouldn't bank on it raining." He heard the groans start but ignored them. "Otherwise, it looks like things are relatively quiet, for now. Tensions running high, but what zombies there were got locked up quickly. Nobody's betting on it staying this quiet, but there doesn't seem to be much for people to do. The exits are blocked by armored trucks." 

The Foxes responded with shouts of outrage, but Allison's voice could be heard over the top. 

"Then how did you get in?" she asked. 

Neil explained about the officers and their misconduct at the frontage road, leaving out the bit where he paid the woman off. This was met by cheers of approval. 

"What's you plan now, then?" came Coach's voice. 

"Stay inside and settle in for the long haul, I guess. Maybe we'll go for groceries today. There's a nice industrial kitchen in here. Could feed all of us pretty easy, so long as we keep supplied. Maybe think about setting up some sort of fire pit in the parking lot." 

"A fire pit?" Someone- Jack, Neil thought- asked. "What for? Heating's out?" 

Neil wished he hadn't spoken. "Not quite." 

There was another one of those uncomfortable silences that Neil found so obnoxious. He decided quickly to break it by asking, "So where did you end up? What's it like out there?" 

The Foxes fell all over themselves describing the massive resort complex Allison had procured for them in a rather impressive mountain range in Austria. It was fully-operational with three sets of swimming pools and a couple of lounges that served fancy booze with their hors d'oeuvres . The resort had responded to the sudden, Allison-induced influx of Americans from contamination zones by bringing in a full staff of highly-trained medical professionals to remain on call at all times while a small medical center was set up just off-site. The Foxes themselves seemed to have taken up and entire floor of what sounded to be one of four buildings. This didn't surprise Neil in the least. 

What did surprise Neil was hearing that Nicky was no longer among them, though he didn't know why. Nicky's family was not there to keep him with the Foxes, so Nicky had caught a plane out to Stuttgart to live with Erik. Neil supposed he had a right to be surprised that he hadn't heard anything about this when it had apparently happened yesterday morning, though. 

When Neil finally hung up, he stood staring at his phone for a minute before the sounds of Robin's voice registered. Curious, he moved up to the railing to see Robin on the floor below, tipped back in a chair with her unfortunately fashionable combat boots kicked up on the table. It was the sort of false vibrato that came with arguments with her parents. She had already had a few, and appeared to have blown right through them. But Neil recognized the signs of tension, and knew she was about to clam up, rather than continue to deal with them. 

Logically, that seemed like a good option to him. Keep her from being distracted by them. But emotionally, he wasn't sure he wanted her to die on bad terms with them. One of her biggest projects this year had been learning how to love her parents while admitting that their self-blaming inclinations were harmful to her. She had come so far. 

Neil stepped back to place a call to Nicky. When he thought back on it, he was pretty sure he'd seen Aaron on the phone with him a couple of times, but it never hurt to put his ore in as well. 

Nicky answered on the third ring with a scratchy "hello?" 

"Nicky, it's Neil," Neil said, vaguely surprised that Nicky hadn't identified him by the caller ID. 

"Oh, Neil!" Nicky said, then cleared his throat a few times. "I haven't heard from you! I talked to Aaron yesterday but it's nice to hear from you too." 

Neil frowned at the bartop in front of him. Nicky's voice was thin with tension, but he was doing his usual best to keep up the positive tone. "I figured as much." He contemplated asking Nicky directly what was wrong, then brushed it off as unproductive. "We're in Columbia today." 

There was a static silence before Nicky exclaimed, "What?! Columbia? As in Columbia South Carolina? Our Columbia?!" 

It was just one of those days. "Yes, Nicky, our Columbia. The on that's on lockdown. We're in Eden's right now, and we're thinking this is the place for us. Roland is here. Haven't you talked to him?" 

"Yes, I have talked to him! That's why I know that this is a bad, stupid, ridiculous idea! Get out of there, Neil," he pleaded. "Please, all of you get out of there!" 

"Sure. If you can talk Andrew into it." 

Nicky made a whining sound. "You know that's not fair. You're the only person who can do that." 

"And I'm not going to. Nicky, I need you to understand that we know what we're risking here. Believe me, we all saw the movies. You made us watch the movies. So at some point we're going to loose contact, and there's a possibility we're all going to die without any of you knowing it. Or maybe we'll be able to call you to say we've been bit. It doesn't matter. All I need is for you to be ready." 

The silence was much longer this time while Nicky processed what Neil was saying. 

Then Nicky hung up. Neil blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected that. 

Still, it was the seed of growth. Neil was about to put his phone away, but he received a text. The text was from Nicky, which made Neil sigh in exasperation. He opened it anyway. 

The text read: "why are u doing this for me if we're not a team anymore?" 

Neil didn't even have to think about it. He replied, "because we're friends".


	8. Settle?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was really short, so I doubled it up. Also, I didn't know how to end it so it.

Only two of Dan's students responded to her offer to let them stay at Eden's. One of them- a fifteen-year-old girl named Anna- arrived alone, side-eyeing everything in a way that made Neil want to give her an introductory schpeil on teamwork and respect for boundaries and fill her phone with emergency contacts. It was a wonder how Foxes always managed to attract others of their kind. 

The other was a boy who must have been a senior by the name of Dylan who brought along his mother and two younger siblings. One of the siblings actually turned out to be a cousin, but Neil let that information slide from his mind along with all the other useless inanities that bounced between that family and the Eden's employees. All he made a point to remember was their names and his gage on their abilities. 

As far as he could tell, even Dylan was going to be mostly useless. It wasn't like Neil was expecting anything, though. 

Neil stayed in the kitchen with Andrew to make a list of foods to pick up from the store while everyone else chatted nervously about anything they could consider shared history. Even after the list was done, Neil made sure to linger long enough to hear that nobody had either encountered a zombie first-hand nor come into contact with anyone else who had. It wasn't as though Neil was prepared to throw anyone back out, but it was good to know if they had to watch their backs. 

Neil turned down the copious quantities of cash one of the Employees pulled out of the safe for him, claiming he didn't want to keep carrying his around anyway. Which was true. Then he tucked a hand-gun into the back of his pants and pulled his shirt down over the top, glad he hadn't let Andrew throw out all his old clothes in favor of impractical ones yet. 

Andrew, Neil and Kevin took Matt's truck to the store, expecting to need the extra space. They selected the grocery store based on which one had the least cars in the lot- which wasn't difficult. Even if they were open, most stores had very few patrons. Neil had expected everyone to be stocking up their larders. Maybe it was fear that kept them in. 

"It's difficult to live like this," Kevin commented as he read the nutritional facts off a canister of frying batter. "In fear of the inevitable, without knowing what the catalyst will be." 

"The voice of experience?" Andrew asked, pulling the batter out of his hands to throw into the cart. 

Kevin shook his head, deep in thought. "No, my life has been different. I always feared the inevitable, but I thought I knew when to expect what. My life runs on a schedule. This entire endeavor is new to me." 

Andrew gazed back at him without sympathy. Neil ignored the both of them in favor of grabbing a jar of pickles, then another two, because he knew they kept well. Andrew threw in another jar that turned out to be pickled asparagus, which Kevin raised an eyebrow at and Neil wouldn't even look at. 

"What are we supposed to make without fresh ingredients? Or even frozen? What sort of freezer do we have?" 

"It doesn't matter," Andrew pointed out. 

Kevin scowled, but Neil nodded. "Probably going to loose power eventually. Better to stick with canned-goods." 

Kevin muttered mutinies, but his boyfriends ignored him, more than used to it by now. 

Sacks of rice and flour went into the bottom of the cart next, both bags and cans of beans in the basket. Kevin demanded so many canned vegetables that Andrew made him grab his own cart for them. This turned out to be a good thing when Aaron texted Kevin, telling him that all of the Eden's employees had forgotten toiletries. So long as they were burning through blood money, Kevin figured they may as well buy everyone medicated toothpaste and high-end shampoos. Neil wandered over to the medicines while he did this, keeping an ear on Kevin in case of zombies. He was mindful of Abby's warning to keep up on their vitamins. He had counted seventeen people staying at Eden's and now he thought of how many chances that was for something more benign like the flu to incapacitate them all. He grabbed several bottles of zinc tablets and a myriad of other medicines. Six of the larger bottles of Aspirin went into the basket. A bottle for each duffel bag. They would start running through them fast when someone needed their skin stitched back together. 

Neil grabbed some gum at the checkout. He supposed the three hundred and seventy eight dollars was really to be expected, given all they were buying and how many people it was for. Neil couldn't help but avoid physical contact with the chekout clerk as he passed the bills over, and she seemed to feel much the same about them. Neil told her to keep the change, which earned him a confused look, and the three of them carted their goods out to the truck. Neil was gratified that there had been so few people around, even as he busted out their new industrial bottle of hand sanitizer. 

Kevin, the asshole, then made a strong case to stop for bedding, appealing to Andrew with graphic descriptions of aching bodies from sleeping on hard wooden floors that he knew far less about than either of his boyfriends. Andrew, against both his and Neil's better judgement, stopped in at a Walmart. 

This was a bad decision. 

Neil had a plush bedroll under each arm while Kevin pushed the cart of similar soft items when Neil registered the stench.

Neil threw the bedrolls away from himself and spun in a circle, searching for the source. Andrew, who had been in the next isle over, was by his side in the heartbeat before the zombie rolled around the corner. 

Never had Neil seen anything more terrifying than a human body rushing at him on all four limbs, like it was a goddamn spider. The gun went off before he was even conscious of drawing it, but he didn't stop when the bulled embedded in its shoulder. Neither did it. Kevin and Andrew had a hold of a shoulder each and had dragged Neil back away from it before he got the opening to put a bullet in its brain. He forced himself to breathe as it fell, counting to three to steady himself. It was enough for him to shoot it in the head twice more before letting the gun fall slack at his side. 

"Jesus fuck," Kevin said, with heat. "We're out." 

There were no arguments there. The three of them abandoned their cart where it was and made a beeline for the front doors, but Neil's gun had caught the attention of whoever else was in the store. Shouts came from behind them. Neil turned his head to see who it was without slowing.

Then man started screaming in earnest from a part of the store they hadn't been in. Kevin tried to pull him on, but Neil knew the sound of active distress when he heard it. He cast about for the source of the screaming and determined it to be in the direction of the clothing section- the changing rooms, maybe. He started forward, but this time Andrew grabbed him as well, and before he knew it he was off his feet, being carried bodily to the car. 

"No martyring here," Andrew ground out. "You cannot save everyone." 

"But there aren't that fucking many yet," Neil cried out in frustration. They had already cleared the doors and were on their way to the car, but Neil saw through the doors the outlines of people running towards them. In a split second he realized they would be trailing any zombies behind them, and he kneed Kevin the the stomach, already raising his gun as Kevin dropped him. 

Andrew grabbed his shirt but didn’t get in his way as he raised the gun. The automatic doors slid open far too slowly as three men- two young, one old- ran through. They were just barely out of the way in time for Neil to sight the zombies in their wake and shoot. The first went down and rolled, but the other went over it without fuss, despite the small size. Neil shot it twice, both bullets landing true. When that one stayed down, he returned to the first and wasted his last bullet on another head shot. 

Neil stood froze in the silence that followed, but neither zombie got back up. Now that the adrenaline was out of his veins, he had time to get a better look at them. A woman and a girl, possibly ten or eleven years old. Mother and daughter? Neil didn’t focus on it. He patted his pockets for a new magazine and reloaded, clicking the safety on as he let his hand drop. 

“Alright then,” Kevin said, voice tight. “Now we’re leaving.”

Neil felt the corner of his mouth twitch. He took a step, but it wasn’t towards the truck. He paced towards the corpses that were now frothing blood around their skulls until he was near enough to make out details. Then he pulled out his phone with his free hand and snapped a picture, one for each. Then he retreated back to his boyfriends. 

“Consider this,” Neil said as the three of them made for the truck, leaving the strangers on their phones. “We might have stopped the infection from spreading by just a little bit by stopping to kill them. We don’t know how many people each of those zombies could have turned.” 

Neil and Kevin climbed in through the passenger side door, but Andrew turned to contemplate the horror show behind them with the driver's door open. 

“It leaves one to wonder,” Andrew commented “whether zombies continue to feel sentimental attachment once they are turned.” 

Neil glanced back through the rear window uneasily. Finally, he said, “It’s a moot point. If one of us is turned but remains attracted to the rest of us, that only means the others will be their first victims.” 

Andrew climbed in and slammed the door behind them. 

Neil called Robin to give them a heads up on what had just happened and to give details on the latest iteration of zombie. Robin herself seemed perfectly enthusiastic about spider-like, fast-moving, super strong zombies, but Neil was doubting her more and more as they went on. She wasn't tried and true, he thought. There was no way of knowing what he psycology would do under pressure.

When they returned to Eden's, all of the Foxes and several employees helped to unload the truck so that the process of pulling goods out and locking the truck down took less than five minutes. Then everyone was safely inside, and a few extra hands wandered off while Neil and the employees were left to put the goods in their proper places in the kitchen. 

Unlike the first two floors, the third floor reserved section had a bit of carpet over where the couches sat. Neil took one look at the couch setup and declared that anyone who wanted those couches better have a damn good excuse, because he absolutely was not going to put up with a PSU Fox-style deathmatch for a total of six good sofas and four plush chairs that wouldn't even recline. It was a bit depressing to think that he couldn't even call this a temporary situation. This was just how it was going to be, here in Eden's Twilight. Really, Kevin had had it right when he made his demand for bedding. Nobody was going out for it now, though. 

Of course, Neil wound up on the floor that night. It was almost a relief to be on night watch, given that he could switch out with Renee for what appeared to be an optimal bit of carpet come time to change shifts. He would be laying down with Kevin, who, it seemed, couldn't be assed to be afraid enough to loose sleep over spider-zombies. It didn't matter, with so many people who had abruptly become insomniacs willing to join the ranks. Andrew was taking morning watch with Renee and four others. 

Everything was stiflingly quiet on the first floor, where Neil had placed himself atop a table sitting against the wall from which he could dimly make out the larger, less defensible front doors and the emergency door in the back corner. Odds were good to excellent that if any zombie were getting in now, it would be right through the front doors. 

With all this time ahead of him, Neil's mind spun in circles. He thought ruefully of the fact that he was not going to be going for any runs in the near future. Maybe he could pace at bit of it off. Do some push-ups to burn off the steam. Nothing but wind in his hair and the scenery rushing by would let him outpace his past, though. Neil was simply doomed to some hellatious nights in the foreseeable future. 

Neil paused in his survey of the first floor to check yet again that his gun was still accessible, then pulled out his phone. He didn’t like to take his eyes off of the door, but chances were high that nothing was going to happen tonight. Even if there were zombies sniffing around outside, the walls were thick enough to keep them from honing in on them. 

There were plenty of other victims for them, anyway. Neil’s fists clenched at the thought. He forced them apart, distracting himself with his phone. 

The Foxes had inundated his phone with picture messages of their resort, some pictures of them getting blackout drunk, and a few of the view from their windows. It was nice to know they were in a good place, safe, with a soft place to sleep, having fun. Even Nicky had sent a few messages, though none of them broached the topic of his cousins’ eventual deaths. Neil hadn’t expected him to come around so fast. He knew he was thinking it over, though. 

The time difference between South Carolina and wherever the Foxes were in Austria meant that Neil was able to hold a couple of texted conversations with them while on watch. He warned them that he wouldn’t be waking anyone up with a phone call, though. They seemed satisfied, but Dan asked to know what Eden’s Twilight looked like empty, saying she couldn’t imagine it without strobe lights. Neil shrugged and took a nearly-black picture of the empty floor, finding to his surprise that it actually showed a bit of detail, even without the flash on. He must have had a good quality camera. He gazed at the picture, which somehow made the place look eerier than it felt. It would be just his luck if he’d caught a ghost or something in that shot. By this point, he doubted it would surprise him. 

He wound up thumbing through his older pictures after sending that one off. He hadn’t thought to take any since those shots of the zombies at Walmart, and didn’t really want to talk about that incident with the Foxes just yet. They were lulling him with their friendly tones, and he didn’t want that to turn to alarm or concern. 

Still, the way the bodies had twisted when they fell gave a good feel for the way that they moved, and Neil wanted to share that revelation with somebody. So he opened his Twitter account and shot off another tweet with both pictures attached, asking again for identification and summarizing how he had come up on them. Then he closed the browser and went back to his vigil over his new and temporary safe-haven. 

*** 

The way the watch schedules were set up meant that at any given time, at least four people were on watch and four more were asleep. Dan’s students were exempt from the watch based on inexperience, and three of the Eden’s exempt based on their abilities to do other tasks, such as cooking. Given the layout of the place, the standard stations were determined to be at the balcony on the third floor, to overlook both lower floors as well as see out the window, behind the bar to guard supplies, on the second floor balcony and next to the stairs on the first floor. The first floor station was quickly pegged as both most dangerous and most boring, so it had a way of falling to the Foxes- primarily Andrew and Renee, though Neil and Aaron did their part as well. A rooftop watch was considered after one of the Employees had found a rather sketchy metal ladder leading to a trap door onto the roof, though majority rule attempted to nix it. Neil suggested they keep up a rooftop watch during the daytime only, which beget better results. Still, Neil thought he was going to wind up there alone a fair amount. 

It was a good thing they had locked in when they did, it turned out. Though all was quiet at Eden's Twilight through the first night, the national news helicopters that had been keeping up live streams of news from all of the quarantine areas reported what at first appeared to be a riot of sorts at a local mall on the east side of town. The building its self had caught fire before there was enough light to tell anything about the crowd gathered, and by the time the morning light illuminated the scene, there were corpses scattered all over the parking lot while the entire building slowly went up in flames. Neil winced as he watched the blaze grow on his phone. The only comfort he had here lie in the American zoning laws that made it so that the buildings weren't close enough together to make the whole city burn down. That inferno would likely take down some trees and nearby buildings, but it wasn't likely to reach them. 

Meanwhile, the fire was instantly burning any zombies that may have been inside. Though cameras hadn't managed to get close enough to tell, Neil was willing to bet on this being zombie-involved. There was really no reason for civilians to set fire to the mall for any other reason. No, Neil thought the real rioting would set in soon enough. The angry Columbians would join forces and go after the boarder guards. Neil was nearly tempted to join them.

That said, the infection had spread like wildfire by mid-afternoon. From his favorite vantage on the third floor, Neil could see people who may or may not have actually been people roaming the street outside. It made him wonder about the nature of the infection, if it took three days to set in, and yet the infected populace hadn't been this much of a problem when they first arrived. Neil took a few pictures out the window with his limited zoom, but none of them turned out. Not even the cars were visible in the pictures. He quickly gave up. 

Neil had commandeered himself a chair from a lower floor to sit at while Roland enthusiastically spearheaded a project to move all of the unnecessary tables and chairs from the top two floors down onto the dance floor. There was some argument between Employees and that Dylan kid over whether it was best to block the door or not. Neil didn't see the need to step in, being ambivalent on the topic himself. In the end, they wound up leaving it open on the premise that it was an escape route. 

Robin had seated herself on the floor at Neil's feet with her her head leaned back against one of the railing's iron bars. She looked awfully dejected for someone who had volunteered for this herself. Maybe she had thought there would be more action. Neil had to admit, he was feeling much the same. 

Neil caught motion out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch Andrew ascend the stairs towards them. He came bearing two bowls of cereal, one which he gave to Neil and the other kept for himself. He shot Robin a glance that indicated she should get her own, but her eyes were closed and she wasn't paying attention, anyway. 

“How long until they bust in here?” Robin asked, breaking the silence. 

Neil sighed, but Andrew seemed to be seriously considering the question. 

“We aren't planning on having them get through the doors ever, you know. I know this isn't a permanent solution, but if all goes well, we'll be the ones busting out, not the other way around,” Neil told her. 

Robin cracked an eye to gaze at him silently. Neil stared back evenly, waiting for her to come to the point. She sighed, rubbing her forehead. 

“I'm not built for this,” she muttered. “Hiding behind locked doors in a cold, dark room.” 

Neil felt his stomach drop a bit at the reference to her personal history, but he ignored it. “I'm sorry it wasn't all heart-stopping action and heroic rescues,” he said dryly. “We'll try harder next time.” 

“I get it,” she bit back. “We're- what- weathering the worst of it? Waiting to clean up the mess? We're going to go ahead and let people get zombified, then we'll shoot down all the zombies we can?” 

That about summed it up. “Waiting to see what happens. Learning the zombies' ways. Take it how you will, but we don't have much information to go off of. We're collecting.” 

Andrew took an unenthusiastic bite of cereal. He chewed and swallowed before saying, “We won't be locked in for long. The world hates safe-havens.” 

Robin sat unmoving for long enough for Andrew to finish his cereal before abruptly leveraging herself to her feet, muttering about visiting Renee. Neil watched her head for the bar, and probably the roof access ladder by extension. Then he turned to Andrew, frowning. 

“This does seem a bit ridiculous for the lengths we went to to get in here. We should be looking for a path back out, not a way to block ourselves in better.” 

“So says the Fox. Some things never change.” 

Neil felt a frown tugging at his mouth. “I'm alive now for a reason. My instincts are telling me we made a ridiculous tactical error. I've been ignored them because everything about this is a tactical error. Not getting on that plane to Austria was a tactical error. I've been overcompensating. But if I can figure out which ones to listen to, my instinct might just save all of us.” 

“Don't count on it,” Andrew replied flatly. 

Neil said nothing but dug into his cereal, barely tasting it. Andrew wandered off before long, and Neil's shift ended not long after that. Neil was relieved from his spot by the bouncer he now knew to be named “Eddie”, but there wasn't much to do. He found himself hyper-vigilant no matter what he was doing, anyway. So he drifted into the kitchen where he had to force himself not to eat anything, then wound up moving into the storage room that contained the roof-access ladder. 

Yeah. The roof was the place to be. 

Renee was still on watch, placidly pacing the perimeter. Neil looked around, determining that he could probably work out some kinks running the length of it. He doubted Renee would mind, but Robin had seated herself in a puddle of self-pity on the far side of the roof, and Neil knew her to be irritable if disturbed in such a state. At least by something annoying like someone jogging next to her. He strode the length of the roof and sat down next to her instead, close enough for her to see him and far enough to give her space. 

There were two zombies in the street below, both apparently older women, though details got a bit distorted when the bodies began what may have been some sort of half-assed decomposition process. They both moved upright and neither seemed to care that the other was present, which disappointed Neil. Life would be so much easier if zombies killed each other off in territorial skirmishes. Neil watched one disappear around a building while the other one stayed on the grass below, holding its hand out as though searching for something while blind. 

“Just like my mother,” Robin muttered sarcastically. 

Neil eyed it dubiously. “Want to try some target practice?” 

Robin turned slowly to look at Neil like he’d just offered her a gold horde. “Uhm. Yes?” 

Neil pulled his gun out of the holster he had strapped to his thigh- the visibility bothered him, but it actually seemed to make the others more comfortable, now- and flipped it to hand over. 

“Ammo?” Robin asked, then checked the magazine for herself. She gave a satisfied nod then clicked the safety off and moved onto her knees to get a better aim. “I’m assuming it’ll only die from a head shot?” 

“Haven’t tried anything else,” Neil shrugged. “Try for it, either way.”

Robin put the gun up in ready position while Neil covered his left ear, then she took her shot. It missed by a good foot, but Neil reasoned this was farther than she was used to, and there was definitely a bit of wind factor. 

The zombie didn't seem to know where the noise had come from, but it reacted strongly, flailing in circles, whipping its head in all directions. The second shot embedded in its back as it hunched over, but it didn't react to that, more keen on the source of the sound. Neil took note. 

The third shot went wide. The zombie was now working its self into a frenzy and had taken its self off of its feat to roll on the ground. Despite this, the way it moved struck Neil as intensely dangerous. It would move fastest on two feet, but being on the ground would not incapacitate it the way it would a live human. Neil took his phone out and began recording. The trap door banged open behind them as Robin took another near-miss shot and Neil looked around to see Roland climbing out, looking highly concerned. 

"Something wrong? Should I tell everyone?" He asked tentatively as he approached. 

"No. Target practice on a zombie, but there's only one," Neil replied. 

"It is attracting more," Renee informed them from a little ways down the wall, having completed her circuit towards them. "They do not appear to have a good sense for where the noise is coming from, but they are growing closer." 

Neil frowned at that. "Maybe I should take the gun back," he said. "Don't touch the barrel." 

"I'm not stupid. Just a bad shot," she sighed. 

"That's not bad. This isn't a good angle." Neil awkwardly accepted the gun from her, then checked the magazine again and took aim. His first shot clipped the back of it's head and he took his next in short succession, killing it on the second. Then he stood up and strode back the way Renee had come to find the additional zombies she had mentioned. He caught Robin muttering something about liars, but ignored her. 

The distance was too far on the next zombie Neil spotted. He contemplated it only briefly before moving on. The next few were much better, going down with two and three shots respectively. 

This level of ammunition waste would have had Neil's mother grumbling under her breath at him. He had long since learned to ignore her at that level. It was if he had missed those shots with easier targets or if he had failed to finish the jobs that it would have become a problem. 

Neil turned to go back to the first zombie he had passed up to find that Robin and Rolland had followed him and were staring slack-jawed at the dead zombies on the pavement. 

"Wow," Roland said helplessly. "I'm glad you're on our side." 

Neil shrugged and shouldered past. The zombie had moved from its previous position, but it hadn't really gotten closer, even if it was a much clearer shot in the middle of the road. Neil just didn't have a good enough aim for that distance with this much wind factor. So he called to Renee, asking her if there were more. 

"There were four on that side," Renee called back from the opposite end of the roof. "I see one over here." 

One more on this side then. 

The trap door opened, this time admitting Dan's student, Anna. She was tensed as though ready for a fight as her eyes darted around.

"Oh," Roland said with dismay. "I was supposed to report. Sorry. But um..." He hesitated, looking nervous. "Are those normal? I mean, most of us haven't really... There's been zombies around?"

Neil and Robin nodded in unison. 

Roland sighed, then gave a rueful smile before jogging over to the trap door. Anna crawled out onto the roof to allow Roland to pass through, but didn't follow him down. Neil kept an eye on them, returning to his hunt for the missing zombie. Robin had already moved on, preforming a reverse circuit to Renee's. 

Neil remained focused on his task as more and more zombies filtered slowly in at the sound of his gun. Not all of them were human, noteably. There were more dogs than anything else, but Neil realized after spotting several zombie cats that the strain would likely pass onto anything, at this point. The rooftop would quickly become just as unsafe as anything else when the birds got involved. 

A crowd of refugees had accumulated on the rooftop. Neil didn't mind so long as they all stayed out of his way. It was just annoying to have them at his back like that, with so many of them being strangers. 

Actually, Neil changed his mind. He turned to them and asked, "you guys wouldn't mind joining Robing and Renee, would you? Go sight out more zombies. Help me make sure I'm not missing anything. 

They were quick to comply. Or, at least, five out of the seven were. That was fine by Neil. 

The two who remained were the students of Dan's. Both of them stood awkwardly before Neil, looking for all the world like they wanted to ask him a question, or a favor, or something. Neil checked over the edge for more targets, and, finding none, turned his full attention on the high schoolers to wait them out. 

Anna was the one who spoke up. "We should learn that," she said quietly. 

Neil simply gazed at her, waiting for her to elaborate. 

"To learn- uh. That." She indicated Neil's gun, and Neil sighed inwardly. It had been a pain teaching the Foxes, and that was before limited ammo had been a concern. But she was right. It just felt wrong to leave these kids at the mercy of the adults in terms of defending themselves. Especially when Neil considered that he wasn't planning on defending them forever. 

So he motioned them forward with a jerk of his head and held the gun up to demonstrate proper shooting technique and safety practices. Once he was done explaining, he handed the gun off to Anna, who stood closer. 

Anna stared down at the gun in her hands like she'd never seen anything like it. Neil watched her for a moment, but she showed no signs of moving. So Neil scanned the street below in search of a moderately easy target, only to find another zombie coming into view. 

But there was something a bit off about this one. It didn't move with the mindless determination that the other ones carried themselves with. And despite the slower speed and the way it was hunched over, it was still on two feet. It seemed too coordinated. These hints seemed to indicate that this wasn't actually a zombie at all, but it wasn't clearly moving toward anything, either. The head didn't move in a way that indicated it was looking for anything. 

Neil held his hand out to get the gun back, and Anna complied immediately. He aimed and shot. The bullet blasted into the brick of the building behind the maybe-zombie. The figure let out a screech and dropped to its knees, unmoving, but still didn't look around. 

"Is she about to go zombie...?" Dylan murmured, a look of fascinated horror on his face. 

Neil gave a small shrug, then turned to call Robin over his shoulder. He sat down on the edge of the roof to watch, motioning for the others to do the same. He pulled his phone out and began recording. 

*** 

Three days into the lockdown, the volume of zombies wandering the perimeter of their haven nearly tripled. On day four the bodies on the pavement had putrefied enough to be smelled strongly within the building, causing the occupants to set out and collect the bodies into a pile while under heavy guard, which they then lit on fire. On day six Eden's Twilight made the news in a list of safe places identifiable by helicopter, the list of which now included two schools, a hotel and a small grocery store. Later that night, the same news station linked Eden's to Neil's twitter account, causing Neil to look more thoroughly through his responses. He discovered innumerable questions posed through retweets and spent his evening off responding to any he deemed worthwhile. A few of the responses involved selfies taken with various other refugees and a few photos of the interior of the club. He responded that no, they had not considered opening up to other survivors but yes, they would discuss it. That discussion mostly took place between Neil, Renee, Roland, Andrew and Dylan, who had by now become the unofficial delegates for descision making. A member of each faction, represented at least once. 

The net result of all of this was Roland unearthing various bits of stationary meant to track food ordering and waste in the kitchen and setting them out next to the stairs with the plan that everyone admitted into the building was relegated to the first floor until they had been inside for at least three days. That way, at least the refugees who were already inside wouldn't wake up to a contagious undead creature in their midst. 

In the evening on day seven, the first survivors arrived. They were admitted by Aaron and Eddy the bouncer, who explained to them the plan; that they were to remain on the first floor for the next three days. Neil, watching with his gun at the ready from the second floor balcony, didn't think the two women looked all that upset about it. He heard one ask if they had food or water, but neither questioned the quarantine. Eddy went to fetch them some stew and a sealed water bottle for each while Aaron asked if they had been bitten or had any extra injuries that needed to tending to. They both seemed dead tired and a bit banged up, but otherwise unharmed. Aaron checked their temperatures just to be sure, then took down their names and what time and day they arrived on.

Neil remained at the top of the stairs when the other two were gone. Both women eyed him and the gun that rested loosely in his hand, but elected not to bother with him. It was obvious enough that he was the enforcer. 

Inevitably, Neil grew bored of watching two women check under tables and pull on the emergency door and turned his attention to making a sign for the front door explaining a knock pattern any humans should follow if they wanted to be let in. He reasoned that if they didn't have the cognitive ability to read the sign and follow the instructions, they were probably on their way to becoming a zombie themselves. He then posted the same instructions in a tweet and the deal once they were let inside in the next. 

Despite the descending apocalypse, Columbia was still a breathing town. When Neil was relieved from his first-floor watch by Eddy and Renee, he found himself jogging the perimeter of the roof. 

A report from earlier that day had stated that power was out on the northern end of Columbia. When Neil passed a certain point on his circuit, he could just make out a mass of black cityscape between two of the taller buildings. The rest of the city was still illuminated by the dull orange light from the functioning street lights. Neil let it all fly by him. Running time wasn't about contemplation. It was about leaving himself behind. 

Kevin arrived on the roof just as Neil was beginning to wear himself out. He stepped into Neil's path and pulled him flush against himself, bending for a kiss even as he grumbled about Neil's sweat. Neil would have preferred that they didn't both get dirty with it, given that their bathing situation consisted of bathroom sinks and wet rags, but he was too pleased with this turn of events to really care. It reminded him of how little time he had spent alone with his boyfriends- especially Kevin- since arriving at Eden's. 

Neil hadn't caught his breath by the time Kevin kissed him, and the kiss certainly wasn't helping, so they had to break apart for a moment so Neil could breathe. Kevin filled the time carding through Neil's hair, despite continued complaints of sweatiness. 

After a little while, the trap door opened to admit Andrew, who gave a cursory glance around the otherwise empty roof before making a beeline for his boyfriends. Neil wondered sometimes if Andrew wasn't a bit psychic when it came to them, but pushed the thought away for later.


	9. Road Rash or Cabin Fever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just picked this fic up after abandoning it for like six months (I just wrote a lot out earlier) and let me tell you. The stuff I wrote recently is waaaay more action-y than this. Something to look forward to, I guess. 
> 
> Also, I've never had a concussion in my life, but I did do some research. It's probably inaccurate anyway. I apologize. 
> 
> (should I be adding additional trigger warnings for gore? There's gore everywhere guys it's in this chapter and it doesn't stop)

Neil was bored. Robin was bored. Renee said nothing and acted as though nothing was amiss, but Neil could tell she had had bigger plans than this. Andrew probably didn't experience boredom any more than he experienced happiness, but he wasn't exactly entertained, either. Aaron and Kevin could feel the discontent radiating off their family and former team, and were both thoroughly annoyed by it. 

It was time for a new plan. 

By some miracle of modern ingenuity (or of human kindness), everyone's phones were still working on day fourteen of their stay in Eden's Twilight. That included the phones belonging to the survivors of Columbia who had been turning up at their doorstep by fours and fives for the past few days. Roland had very kindly dropped down a couple of the phone chargers brought in by the Foxes at the beginning of this apocalypse siege so that the newcomers could text directly to the kitchen with their food requests and any questions they may have had. 

Meanwhile, Neil had gone out in the last expedition to burn the zombie corpses- the pile of which grew larger every time, and now required a bonfire every two or three days- to grab the targets and a bit of extra ammo from Matt's truck. He set those targets up on the roof and set about teaching anyone who showed any interest how to use the guns. The waste of ammunition no longer bothered him with the hidden thought of freedom resting on his conscience. 

Finally, it became glaringly obvious that their food stores were too badly depleted to ignore any longer. A council was called by the kitchen staff to discuss rationing, while a separate council convened on stools behind the bar to discuss procuring more. Cannibalism was brought up as a joke by Dan's student Dylan, and he was promptly ejected from the group. He was quickly replaced by Anna, who resembled a zombie less than Dylan did, at this point. 

While they discussed who exactly would go on the food run and with what vehicle, Neil studied pictures and video clips taken of the city by helicopters. He checked first the nearest stores, but found suspicious figures wandering too close and assumed they could easily be inside the building as well. The Walmart from earlier was out. The grocery store they had hit up on their first day turned out to be only the third closest, and it seemed to be fairly compromised. But Neil's attention drifted in the other direction, down to that grocery store in the residential neighborhood that had been reported as a safe-zone by the news. It struck him that no matter how many people they had inside, they couldn't eat all the food by themselves. The distance wasn't great, but the idea of setting up a safehouse somewhere else in town, of developing a partnership with someone in control of food stores... 

Neil brought it up with the rest of the group and received immediate and enthusiastic agreement. Half of the group knew- or, could probably guess- that this wasn’t really something Neil was doing for himself, or his little section of the refugee population. Renee and Andrew knew that whatever they did for this place now, it was to set this building up for a long-surviving future without their help. Everyone was in agreement. 

There was no use waiting around now. After a quick check of their surroundings from the roof, Neil, Andrew and Renee set out on what they hoped would be a diplomatic mission. That, of course, was why they were leaving Kevin behind.

Neil spent the drive in Matt’s truck with his window open and his gun cocked. He had spotted only one zombie off in the other direction from the rooftop before they left, and there didn’t seem to be any more along the way. He had Anna and Aaron up on the roof now, loaded down with guns and ammo to clear the way when they returned with the goods. 

The moment the parking lot came into view, Neil’s heart soared. 

The lot was filled with bodies of all levels of decomposition and the lights were on inside the obviously well-barricaded store. Figures moved around on the roof. 

Andrew had to run over more than a few bloated limbs in order to draw up to the front doors while Renee closed the vents on the dashboard. They parked on the yellow stripes and Neil flung himself out of the car to let Renee out. Renee immediately climbed up into the bed of the truck, then up onto the roof to get as close to the roof of the store as possible. Neil didn’t look up to see if the roof guard was coming to meet them. His full attention was on the surrounding parking lot. He made a mental note to bring a bandanna for the smell next time. 

If Neil had pulled out a stopwatch, he probably would have found that the negotiation didn’t take that long. It didn’t feel like it when every muscle in his body remained tensed for a fight, locked in the mental battle of keeping his finger on the trigger without pulling it on nothing. Then, even when Renee had talked the grocers into letting them in, it took forever for them to deconstruct the barricade. Neil swore he saw something move out in the street. It was far enough away to not be an urgent concern, though, and chances were too high at this point that he was just deluding himself. 

Neil did not envy those who were trapped in a grocery store during a zombie apocalypse. As good as it sounded in theory, with so much food at their disposal, there were few differences between a store and an empty warehouse. The rooftop made it a bit more defensible than it would have been otherwise, but if the zombies got past the first line of defense, it wouldn’t take long to get to the people. Then there was the windows- big windows lining the entire front of the store, just waiting for a body to slam against them hard enough to break through. Neil kept his eyes fixed out those windows as Renee completed the second stage of negotiations. It was only a little bit better now that two other burly, heavily-armed men standing guard alongside him.

The problem with large men was that Neil didn’t trust them. 

“I’m not saying we don’t- I’m saying, I mean, you gotta look at this from our perspective,” said the man who had come forward for negotiations, talking over Renee for the umpteenth time. “Like, what do we get out of this?” 

“It would be easier if you could tell us what you most need,” Renee pointed out with heroic patience. “We may be able to get it for you.”

“No, we’re stocked, I’m telling you we don’t need anything,” he argued doggedly. Neil noted the beleaguered looks on his companions faces, but nobody said anything. Neil reassessed how beneficial this arrangement was going to be out of their favor. 

There were a few more back and forth volleys before someone new came racing up behind the man, running into him with the momentum and almost getting decked in return. The newcomer was a younger man who looked to be almost in his thirties, looking thoroughly windswept. He had probably just been on the roof. 

“Where are you from?” He panted, waving the first man away. “One of the others on the news?” 

“We’re residing in Eden’s Twilight,” Renee informed him. 

“Oh!” The grin that split across his face could have thawed a corpse. Neil was reminded a bit of Jeremy Knox. The resemblance ended abruptly when he said, “you’re the ones with the body bonfire! We need to do that, too!” 

“That’s something we can do for you,” Neil replied, eyeing the zombie corpses. It would take a hell of a bonfire. Maybe even two. 

“We’ll help, we just...” 

“Cover us,” Neil told him. “Cover us from the roof so we can work in peace.”

Nobody seemed to have any complaints, so Neil and Andrew immediately set to work building a pile of bodies, interspersed with wood supplied from the back rooms of the store. It quickly became apparent that they wouldn’t be able to burn all the bodies safely with a single fire, but the people in the store didn’t seem to mind. They loaded up carts mostly with fresh produce and meat, telling them to come back for more when they came to make their second bonfire. Only one additional zombie needed killing in the two or so hours it took. 

It made Neil wonder if maybe the zombie apocalypse wasn’t proving to be so apocalyptic after all. There should be so many more zombies than this, if the majority of Columbia had turned. The only plausible explanation was that, in fact, most of them were holed up at home. Whether that meant they were going to pull through or that this fiasco was only just beginning had yet to be seen. 

The agreement was to return for their next run the following day. Renee exchanged phone numbers with the younger man- whose name Neil didn't quite catch, but sounded like “Arnold” or something- so they could keep updated and the three packed off with the goods, returning to an efficient and enthusiastic unloading. Everyone got an apple to themselves and the promise of more to come, which bolstered the general mood significantly. Dinner was crisp and aromatic that night. Renee invested a fair bit of time texting food requests to that “Arnold” guy at the store and receiving complaints in return. They didn't like the stench of burning corpse, it seemed. Renee had to remind them that a good part of the reason they were doing this was to avoid having infection carried into the store's foods by flying insects, thereby potentially infecting everyone inside with zombiism. 

That said, reports were starting to come out on the topic of transfer. As far as any of the medical professionals on the job could tell, the bite really was the only way to get infection into the body. Of course, there was a running theory that biting the zombie back would also transfer it, but who wanted to test that? 

Neil set out with the party again the next day. In terms of a three-man team to create a body pile in the middle of what may as well be an active warzone, Neil thought their earlier arrangement was the best. But that didn't quite suit his purpose. So he talked Renee into swapping with Anna and added two of the other men who had gone out for corpse burnings before. The five of them took a new vehicle, provided by some of the newcomers to Eden's Twilight. It was a big black beast of a truck with a crew cab and a topper on the back, and Neil thought it would do just fine. Once they managed to tank up, of course. 

This trip was a bit more eventful than the last. They had taken all of the same precautions, checking from the roof, examining the live feed from the news stations' helicopters, even asking the Grocers for an update. Everything seemed to be clear when they set out. But things just weren't always what they seemed. 

They really needed that gas. There were multiple stations between Eden's and the store, so they were able to choose the one with the most open space and the fewest suspiciously abandoned vehicles in the lot. They had stopped, Neil had verified that the prepay pump was working and the tank was filling when a gun went off. Neil spun from his place on top of a cement block and located the zombie writhing on the ground immediately. He took the fatal head-shot just as another bullet landed in its shoulder. But someone was still shouting, causing him to whirl around again, and he just caught sight of another running at them before something blew him straight off his perch, slamming him hard into the concrete. His arm went up instinctively, just saving him from getting a mouthful of brains as Andrew embedded a racquet in its skull. 

The guns were still going off, but Neil's vision was a kaleidoscope. He didn't even have the presence of mind to get out from under the zombie. All he knew was that he had a massive head-injury, and he should probably, really do something about that. 

The next thing he knew, the body was lifted off of him and his jacket was being stripped. He had no idea why the jacket had to go- he was starting to get cold flashes from the pain. Even in this state, though, he knew by hard earned experience that a jacket wasn't going to help him now. He wound up in a loop, wanting his jacket back and realizing again that it wouldn't help as someone's hand felt around the back to his head. He should have some sort of opinion on this, but he couldn't muster one up. 

Someone leveraged him upright and began half-dragging him towards the truck. Neil's mind managed to focus on Andrew's familiar voice in his ear- talking to him? What was the question? No, he was talking to someone else. He was on the phone. Neil tried follow the conversation, but it was too late to piece it together now, even with his mind beginning to come back to him a bit. He got the sense there was a plan being made. Was Andrew talking to Renee? No, Kevin. Neil knew the sound of Andrew's voice when he talked to Kevin. He just really got the feeling this was Kevin. 

Then he was dragged into the bed of the pickup and he blacked out for the moment between lying down and the truck going into motion. Andrew was there to keep him awake, however, and he held onto that like a lifeline. 

“Concussion?” Neil asked weakly. “Is there a lot of blood?” 

“Yeah,” Andrew replied, pressing on Neil's forehead in a way Neil did not at all appreciate. Pressing his head back onto some fabric to staunch the blood flow, no doubt, but painful nonetheless. 

Neil hummed in response, but it was a horrible mistake. He allowed himself time to collect himself, then said, “I'm... out of commission.” 

“You think.” Andrew looked even less amused than usual. “You're not standing on one of those again.” 

Neil scoffed a breathy, careful scoff. “Best vantage. Should've... been okay.” 

“But it wasn't, and you won't do it again.” 

Neil had no argument for that. “Taking me back to Eden's?” He asked instead. “Are we... ditching the store?” 

“Three guesses.” 

“You sound annoyed. I'm asking stupid questions to stay awake. So quit.” 

Andrew grunted. “Then we'll stick to the basics. Give me a count of five in German.” 

Neil managed that, then another in Spanish and backwards again in German, but there was no need for a test. Neil was quite clearly concussed. Just the amount of tries it took to accomplish these things brought them all the way back to Eden's. 

Neil lost time between when the engine was killed and when he made it inside, but the process of being jostled up the stairs to the second floor was embedded perhaps permanently into his mind. From there, nobody dared move him all the way up to the third floor. Kevin met them on the second floor with several garments draped over his arm, which he arranged on the floor off in a corner by the bar. Neil didn't understand until Andrew and someone else Neil couldn't process walked him over and made him lay down. 

Neil suddenly remembered what should have been his most urgent question, then promptly lost it again as the activity around him dragged his attention in too many directions to comprehend. He closed his eyes and blocked them out, focusing on the root of his feeling of panic, and successfully dredged it up. He was just about to ask it when something smacked him in the face. He let out an offended squawk and opened his eyes to see Kevin hovering over him apologetically. 

“You can't go to-” 

“Fuck, I had a question!”

Kevin stared at him expectantly, but Neil couldn't remember the question anymore. Obviously. So he just glared back as well as he could with one eyelid pulling closed. 

Andrew leaned into Neil's line of vision, breaking the world's shittiest stare-down. “We're sending another group out for the grocery run. Renee's going this time. We've got Abby on call, so the Foxes know. Yours was the only serious injury. Nobody was bitten. You're staying down here away from the others for a quarantine period because of the brains on your face.” 

Hadn't anyone washed the brains off his face yet? They were all doing him a serious disservice. He reached up, but didn't find any. 

“The brains that were on your face,” Kevin corrected. 

Good enough. And Andrew had brought up the most important point, which was the bites. Neil was content to sleep... 

Right. 

It was going to be a long day. 

And Neil didn't think Andrew would appreciate being vomited on. Kevin was going to have to accept his fate. 

 

*** 

Neil's head healed up faster than anyone else expected it to. Personally, Neil had dealt with more than a few head injuries over the course of his life, and he would have been thoroughly disappointed if this had gone any slower. His skull wasn't even cracked. The bleeding stopped promptly after he got home, despite being a head wound. Really, the vomit taste in his mouth was the most lasting part.

No, the worst effect of Neil's injury and quarantine was the fact that, of all times, the world chose those three days to blow up in mayhem. 

It seemed the grocery runs had been completed just in time. The official quarantine zones inside the hospitals had evidently been festering with zombie virus patients and had, according to official report, been physically locked down by the U.S. Army, who were the ones posted at all the exits. The zombies inside the hospitals finally broke out on Neil's second day of convalescence, meaning every hand that had any shooting skills wound up on the roof with rifles, beating the zombies back from Eden's front doors. For the first time, the doors shook with malevolent creatures who knew there was live flesh within. The people still on the first floor begged Aaron at his post to let them up, but Aaron was steadfast, pointing his gun at anyone who tried to climb up and even firing a warning shot once. He promised them that if the zombies got in, he'd shoot at the zombies, not them. At Neil's request, the guard at the staircase increased to three. Two handguns remained in Neil's alcove, within easy reach of Kevin and Andrew, as their next line of defense. Neil eyed them. He was beginning to feel well enough, he thought. 

At the beginning of the zombie siege, Robin spent much of her time with Neil, reading avidly off the news stories on her phone. Neil got the next best thing to a live feed as the live zombie count came back at just under a thousand, a number that only swelled as time progressed. Then she was called to the roof, as one of the best shots available. Not that it mattered, she later informed him. It didn't take an ace shot to hit a zombie. They just had to aim downwards. Then she returned with Renee and several others to hold council at Neil's pathetic cloth bedside, entertaining the idea of shutting down and allowing things to run their course. It was theorized that the zombies were attracted to the sounds of the guns, and not so much the smells of the humans within. If they remained quiet for long enough, they should be able to thin the crowd enough to... 

To what? Neil had a nice mental image of taking the Exy racquets to their heads. That, at least, was a non-limited resource. But the others seemed to find the idea of getting that close to the spider-zombies to be stupid at best and nightmare-inducing at worst. Well, maybe death-inducing at worst. The fact that they had not had any casualties within Eden's yet was a bit of a miracle at this point, to be honest. The others didn't care for it when Neil pointed that out. 

On day three of Neil's quarantine and day eighteen of the lockdown at Eden's Twilight, all of the refugees were safely reallocated to the upper floors of the nightclub, where they quickly discovered themselves to be not much more comfortable than down below, given the now cramped quarters. Neil thought he would probably wind up staying right where he was, even when he was allowed to move around again tomorrow afternoon. He had shown only signs of recovery up to this point. Not a hint of fever. He was sure he wasn't infected. 

Based on circumstantial evidence, Kevin and Andrew were pretty sure, too. Neil felt more than a little decadent, using Kevin's chest and occasionally Andrew's stomach as a pillow. The blessing of being so much smaller was that Kevin made up practically an entire mattress for someone Neil's size, and having Kevin's arms to hold him in place did wonders for the almost-nightmares that had been haunting Neil's sleeping hours for weeks now. It made him marvel at how they hadn't been cuddling their nights away from the start.

Well, the reason for that was still the press. Andrew and Neil were out. Kevin was not. Their new housemates found it just as odd as the Foxes had in the beginning to see the usually caustic Kevin Day rubbing gentle circles into Neil's injured head. Neil, for his part, didn't care what they thought unless they brought it up with them directly. After a few venomous looks from Andrew, those slowed to nothing. The three were left alone in their corner with only the already-accepted few to bother them. 

Once his head was well enough for him to look at the screen of his phone, Neil started replying to all the worried texts from his teammates. Things hadn’t changed with them, they reported, and the zombie infection had slowed significantly in its spreading. It now covered most of the eastern seaboard, but had not traveled to California yet. Neil wondered if Millport had landed on the safe or dead side of that divide. 

Eventually, Neil took to his twitter account again. He had a massive pile of pictures taken during body-burnings yet to post. Robin pointed out that it was strange, the way the site allowed him to post such ridiculously horrific pictures without suspending his account. Maybe it was the popularity. His following had certainly skyrocketed in the past few weeks. He considered that people who had escaped were trying to understand what it was like living in an infected zone. It stood to reason they would appreciate some verbal insights, as well. So he started composing text posts to intersperse with the rest. 

This was scrap-booking, Neil realized. One of his old coping mechanisms taking a new form. 

***

The stench was getting to them again. There was no escaping it, on the roof, in the bathrooms, in the kitchen. The burning smell was truly horrific as well, but it seemed preferable, now. Something about it being a temporary thing. 

Neil wasn’t allowed to climb the ladder to the roof, because after four days of recovery Andrew still didn’t trust him to not fall to his death. Neil sneaked up there anyway when nobody but Robin was looking and got is first look around. 

It was gruesome. A lake of bodies in every direction, festering and bubbling until it was impossible to tell if it was one body or three in some places. There were clear patches, but none large or straight enough to create any sort of clean pathway out. Others picked their way through, mostly on two legs. Neil took another hard look around and discovered yet again that his earlier inference had been correct: there was not a single child-sized zombie among them. The only small one had been the daughter of the two in the Walmart at the very beginning. And she had been no younger than ten. 

“Some dropped dead on their own,” Robin informed him optimistically. “That implies that zombiism doesn’t last forever, right?” 

That thought was definitely comforting. “Or maybe there’s a counter-virus. A secondary virus that can kill those who have already become zombies? Some sort of flu?” 

Robin tilted her head in thought. “That’s… I mean, wouldn’t that be cool? We can do like the pilgrims and throw infected blankets at them, or something.” 

“Just as long as it isn’t something that would also kill us,” Neil agreed. 

“I guess odds are low,” Robin muttered. They stood in silence for a while, then she said, “but we're going to go out through it, I guess.” 

Neil frowned in thought. Of course they would, eventually, but Neil didn't think Robin was talking about eventualities. He thought the same of himself, come to think of it. 

They went back down the ladder without another word, Robin going first on the faulty logic that she would catch Neil if he fell. He didn't complain, simply focused on the climbing. 

****

A few days later, Neil was deemed mostly recovered by the tests suggested to them by Abby. Abby informed them that Neil should continue to rest for a while, but Neil had had enough inactivity to last a lifetime. Within a few minutes of hanging up with Abby, he had every bit of protective gear in his possession on and an Exy racquet in his hand. He felt a rush that was a very close cousin to the rush he felt before a game as he looked through the visor of his helmet to see the racquet clutched between gloved hands. The helmet was a must, at this point. Everyone who would be coming out with Neil was ordered to wear them. What made humans better was the ability to learn, right? 

The first floor was empty of any unwary citizens. Instead, the occupants of Eden's Twilight were positioned with almost everyone on the top floor, and those with the best aim on the second floor balcony, third floor balcony, and the raised dais that the DJ used to sit on on the first floor. There were more on the roof, armed with bows and arrows. A select few- including Aaron and Kevin- remained behind the first line of defense on the second floor, armed with golf clubs and knives. They were ready for a zombie invasion. 

The group who went out was the usual, those who had by now been deemed most competent. Andrew, Renee, Neil and the bouncer Eddy. 

Technically speaking, Anna was a better choice in terms of ability to defend herself than Eddy was. But Neil's plans to have Anna take charge once he was gone led him to forcing her back on missions that weren't strictly necessary. And this? 

This was just for fun. 

The doors took some doing to open, with the barricade of tables and chairs that had been set up since the hospitals emptied of zombies. Once on the other side, they closed but didn't lock the doors. Chances were good to excellent they were going to need to make a quick retreat. 

There was one zombie near the doorway. Andrew responded to it before it had a chance to see them, and its head caved promptly under the force of his racquet. 

This time, nobody stopped to sort through the bodies closest the door. They headed straight for the cars, which were now parked not ten feet from the door, and were covered in gore from the zombies shot from the rooftop. The bodies would be revisited, but for now the area needed clearing. 

After pulling the dead zombie body out of it, Neil climbed up into the bed of Matt's truck with a gun in his hand. The nearest zombie to them now was a good distance away, but Neil barely needed a target, anyway. He needed a warning shot. The walkie-talkie at his hip let out a constant update of the zombies nearby, and he knew there was a group like a blood clot in an artery just around the corner. He took aim and shot. 

Niel couldn't even have counted to five before the zombies were on them. The speed still astounded him to no end, but there was no use trying to comprehend it right now. All that mattered was the feel of a good swing and the satisfaction of success as one zombie after another fell to their feet. Neil knew they were being recorded. He'd put Robin in charge of the roof. She knew what he would want her to do. 

In this game, the team had positions, but only two. Offense and defense. Neil and Andrew went at the zombies without a second thought to what was around them and what got past, leaving the job of cleanup to Renee and Eddy. They constantly shouted warnings to each other, but Renee was good at her job. Nothing landed on Neil's back while he was preoccupied. It probably helped that he and Andrew worked so fast. 

Still, by the time the first batch was done, Neil thought it would be wisest to put Andrew on defense, after all. It was what he was best at. 

Eventually, they got the call from Robin that said there were no more in the direct vicinity. They knew perfectly well that wasn't going to last, but they may as well be working while they waited. This time, Neil thought to wear a bandanna over his mouth, and not just to keep his hair back. Neil, Eddy and Renee got to work piling the bodies up while Andrew took watch before Robin warned them that more had arrived around the north side, at which point Renee stepped back for watch as well. Neil didn't fire a shot to attract them this time. They simply waited for the zombies to come to them and worked on. With Renee and Andrew taking care of the active threats, he barely even had cause to look up.

By the time the body pile was too large to safely pile on any more bodies, the lot was only half-cleared. Neil blamed that on the fact that they were adding the fresh kills first. It was a bit easier in terms of getting their hands dirty. The fresh ones were- well- fresher. 

After three bouts of zombie attack and the killing of one stray zombie dog, the pile was stuffed with kindling in the form of wood shavings Neil had ordered be made while he convalesced and lit aflame. It went up easier than usual. The group retreated indoors, where they shucked their gorier garments and re-locked, re-blocked the door. Everyone inside scooted out of their way as they dragged themselves and their equipment up to the showers. 

Someone with a big heart and bigger mind had taken a hose and a makeshift spray nozzle and had set up a shower system in each bathroom. The water pressure wasn't great, but everyone was grateful nonetheless. The zombie team piled into the one on the second floor and took turns scrubbing the gear in the three empty sinks and scrubbing themselves under the shower, bottles of dish soap passing around. 

Neil stood under the spray of the hose in his underwear and ignored Eddy's furtive glances. He felt damn good. His heart still pounded, his arms ached from impact after impact and right shoulder hurt from a zombie's best effort a breaking through his leather jacket and under-armor shirt with its teeth, but Neil's heart sang nonetheless. 

They had done it. They had proven they were capable of going out into the most zombie-infested place and surviving without a single serious injury. 

When they were done, they deposited the gear by the stairs on the first floor. They were officially back in quarantine, but Neil didn't mind that too much. There was a carpeted patch on the first floor that was just as good as the one on the third, and nobody wanted to go down there, anyway. He could run laps all he wanted. He also had time to text with the Foxes, who were by now baffled that none of them were dead and all of them still had phone reception. The most major injury between all of them right now was the broken arm Jack had gotten swan-diving from an upper floor pool into another one below, thus getting everyone banned from both pools. 

But mostly, Neil stuck to twitter. 

It seemed that for the foreseeable future, the four of them would not be leaving the first floor. When the first blaze bubbled down to a gelatinous, smoldering mess the next day, they suited up again with only a few minor changes in their gear to build another body pile atop the first. They went through the same process as last time, killing any zombies who attacked and adding them to the pile, but they didn't bother attracting them this time. Then they went up to clean up while the others gave them a wide berth and settled in to stretch out and rest on the first floor. It wasn't so bad on the first floor, Neil thought, though he had taken to wearing his bandanna over his nose indoors as well. Smoke rose. It would be worse higher up. 

After this blaze, they were going to have to start moving farther afield. Neil didn't favor that idea right away. Instead, they planned an expedition to the grocery store. Renee had kept up a constant flow of updates between Eden's and the store, so they knew that the store's lot would be as bad off as their own. Neil considered that they probably wouldn't be able to pull up close enough for another food run until the lot was burned out. Neil didn't want to wait until they were desperate, and the store agreed whole-heartedly. 

This time, when they pulled up to the store- and Neil had been right about not being able to get close to the door- the occupants met them immediately, putting out five of their own to get the body pile set up as quickly as possible. The whole ordeal went by faster and smoother than either of Eden's, with fewer zombie attacks and fewer zombies per attack. They were informed by the locals that the grocery store simply hadn't had as many zombies around it as Eden's had. That was probably because there was an extensive downtown hospital situated a good six blocks from Eden's. The two others were both on the outskirts of town in opposite directions. The store was relatively safe. 

They returned to Eden's with a bit of produce in reusable shopping bags despite themselves. They had the displeasure of killing off a large pack of feral zombie cats in the lot before they could bring the groceries in. Neil made a mental note to guard his ankles better. Still, nobody left the lot with any cat bites, or even scratches. But better safe than sorry. 

An idea was forming in Neil's mind. They hadn't seen any real people since the hospitals busted out, but Neil would have to be blind not to see the evidence of them. He remember the sights of blockaded front doors and boarded up windows, zombies dead on front lawns, lights on in upper stories of complex buildings. Pictures went up on social media from the inside of Columbia from places Neil had never set foot in. They were out there by the thousands, Neil could feel it. He didn't want to leave people to fend for themselves. 

He put the idea by Andrew first. Andrew had no response to spare, which was a perfectly good sign that he didn't see enough folly to point it out. Heartened, Neil approached Renee next and got a solemn nod of agreement. Then Kevin caught wind of it and leaned over the balcony to gripe about how it was horrible, they were absolutely not allowed to, they were going to die etc. etc.. This was an indicator of absolutely nothing, so Neil decided that they were really going to go for it, after all. 

The first step was to procure a building.


	10. The Last Best Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MMmmm took me forever just to find the time to update. I'm hype about what's coming up, so might post again real soon. I meant to make some changes, but... didn't happen. (sorryyyy)

It was a bank, not a hotel, like Neil had thought it would be. Having avoided banks through most of his childhood, Neil hadn't properly considered them as an option. This one made him reconsider. It was six stories of reinforced steel everything. Neil wasn't sure what paranoia had lead this particular branch of First Federal Bank to reinforce its glass door with wire mesh, or to make it otherwise quite bulletproof, but they had done that, and that made the place at least worthy of consideration. 

Of course, it wasn't far from that downtown hospital. Just barely farther than Eden's its self was, but it was on the opposite side of the hospital from Eden's, so it wasn't the most convenient to get to. Still, Neil favored it over the two nearby office buildings they had scoped out earlier because of the size of the neighboring parking lot and the fact that the sinks weren't that type that was motion-activated. With Renee's backing, their decision was made. 

They didn't start by advertising it, or by moving refugees out of Eden's and into it, as they planned to eventually. They started with grocery store runs- which had indeed extended back to that infected Walmart, and had indeed resulted in the people at Eden's sleeping on air mattresses- that filled the nonextistant pantries of the bank. They brought over the same woman who had rigged up the showers to convert some rooms upstairs into kitchen space. Then, once the building was ready, they brought over staff from Eden's to live in the bank, guns loaded, golf clubs at the ready. All of the Foxes and Dan's two students stayed at Eden's, which would remain home-base. 

Then Neil put out an advertisement on Twitter, explaining the safehouses of the Bank and Eden's, giving directions, and asking people to contact him if they needed help getting out of their current houses and across town to those safehouses. The grocery store agreed to begin taking people on as well, under the condition that there be a turnover. They were sick of each other. So about six of them wound up moved promptly into the bank, waving good riddance to the rest. 

Nobody messaged Neil for the first few days, but he didn't mind. Another inventory had been taken back at Eden's, revealing that they were worryingly low on ammo, since splitting their supply with the bank. People were starting to get more than a little twitchy about the whole thing. They might have been twitchy for a while now. Neil was learning it was best to act as though he was doing something productive about it at all times, rather than face the mini breakdowns some specific people tended to have. He'd had the phone snatched out of his hands more than a few times, and the first time it was someone other than Kevin he'd had to keep her from getting knifed by Andrew. He didn't have the energy for it. 

Surprisingly, Kevin was no harder to deal with now than he had been before. He was responding to the stress by complaining and, when he knew he was in the wrong, complaining in texts to his father overseas. Neil had the strong impression from a few texts of his own that the whole thing still seemed baffling to Wymack, who had really been expecting to be in mourning over dead Foxes by now, not listening to Kevin whine about boyfriend number two. Neil sympathized. 

So Neil came up with a plan. He took his usual party out, but this time, they took their duffels with them, packed to the brim with packaged and sealed foods. And Neil's. Of course, Neil's was still packed as it had always been. 

They headed to the edge of town in Andrew's Maserati in an attempt to keep the engine noise from attracting unwanted teeth and drove the small roads at the very perimeter until the recently-constructed razerwire fences turned into a post at which soldiers sat. The same one that had been secretly letting people out at the beginning. It was locked off now, guards armed to the teeth, every eye on the approaching vehicle. Just what Neil was looking for. 

They pulled up right against the gate with Neil's passenger window drawing parallel to the first guard on the other side of the fence. It was a man Neil didn't recognize, but Neil didn't mind. It seemed he recognized them. 

“Didn't think we'd be seeing you punks again,” he said in what sounded like it should have been a sneer, but fell far short. 

Neil kept his gaze level in a way he knew typically unnerved people. It seemed to be working this time, too. “We're still here. Don't you watch the news? We were on there a couple times in the last few weeks.” 

The man said nothing. His face was partially obscured by the dark visor on his helmet, but his expression was still easy for Neil to read. Confusion and anticipation. Neil smiled his father's smile at him. 

“Are you rooting for us?” He asked dryly. “We're a lot more hands-on that you assholes are. Doing some good.” 

The man seemed about to bite out some nasty retort, but he was stopped when curiosity won out over three of the other guards and they stepped up to the fence beside him. One of them was the woman Neil had bribed to get in. 

“You got a reason to be back here? You shoulda known you wouldn't be getting back through,” she said accusingly. 

Neil shrugged. “So we're not getting through. That's fine. Do you mind doing me a favor?” 

The general response to this was a resounding _no_ , but the woman was intrigued. She regarded him through slitted eyes. 

“What's the favor, and what's in it for us?” she asked slowly. Neil knew she would be the one to talk to. Once bribed once, she would know what to ask for. 

“We're running low on ammo,” Neil explained. “There's only so much we can get out of the local stores, and most of them are either cleared out or too out of the way to get to safely. I don't care what you get us, just as long as we can shoot with it. I'll make it worth your while.” 

She considered this, tapping a heavily gloved finger against her lips. Finally, she said, “we've got some to spare,” in the leveled tones of someone who didn't quite want to say it, or wasn't quite telling the truth. 

One of the men gave an offended grunt. “No we don't.” 

“But we can order out more,” she shot at him. “Won't take them long to supply, will it? And when was the last time we saw a dead one? How much ammo did that take?” 

Nobody seemed to like this, but Neil was already digging in his bag. He had wisely put all the loose bills together in a clip so he wouldn't have to take too long on it. He let the woman see how large the primary wad was before counting out two dozen bills. There was nothing smaller than a hundred in the stack. He held the offerings up by one end so the crisp bills would separate, showing off their value. The attitudes of the others changed immediately when they saw it. 

“Where you get that kind of money, kid?” one of them breathed. 

Neil gave his brittle smile. “Inheritance. Do we have a deal?” 

They did have a deal. Andrew popped the trunk while the soldiers brought forth their ammo supplies and opened the gate. Eddy hopped out to help the soldiers load it into the trunk, and they wound up with not only the ammo but several guns. Fully-automatic weapons. Those were the only type of guns their magazines would work with. Neil didn't mind. Four guns for three rooftops struck him as a perfectly good deal. 

And they only had to run down one zombie on the way home. It was a good day. Neil was in a so good of a mood he busted a hose out and cleaned off the cars when they got back. 

*** 

Before long, Neil started receiving those messages from the cowering citizens of Columbia, giving him locations and begging for help. There were a grand total of four cars operable by what they were now calling the “Eden's Guard”, but only six people willing to leave the safehouses to use them. The beast of a truck with the crew cab and the covered bed they favored for supply runs was donated wholesale to the cause and became the gold standard vehicle for when someone called Neil for a rescue. 

Pretty soon, they had a protocol set up for these calls. Neil would begin by asking for names, locations, how many people would be there for rescuing, who had sustained what injury and what the situation in their area was. He would then call around to each safehouse and see who wanted to take on someone of that description, except if someone was injured. If there were injuries, they were always taken back to Eden's, which had the best medical setup by this point. Twice, rescued parties elected to drive their own vehicles, which meant Andrew and his uncaring driving would lead them, ready to run down any zombies that came their way as need be. They often did that. The other car was instructed to drive with their windows up and doors locked (the zombies liked to make desperate scrabblings to get to people and had a tendency to open doors with simple leaver systems) and sit still until the rescue car had time to get their bearings on the situation. They were NOT to panic if the rescuers did nothing at first. They were liable to do that anyway, but it was worth a shot in telling them. 

Neil was pleased with how quickly the safehouses filled up. Before long, they were looking at selecting a completely new one. It didn't please Neil that he had yet to delegate a leader in the Bank House, but supply must meet demand, and people were calling in at an alarming rate. Neil practically had to set up a timetable to schedule their rescues like they were appointments. People didn't seem to like to hear it when he mentioned that, though. Like rescue was supposed to be some red-blooded, headlong leap into any situation without regard for personal safety. If Neil were being rescued by someone like that, he'd probably take his chances on his own, rather than let them handle his wellbeing. 

The inevitable happened while Andrew and Neil were cruising in search of a potential new safehouse. The reception on Neil's cellphone began fading in and out as he talked to Abby about medical practices in cases of internal bleeding. He was glad he'd been on the phone with a Fox at the time. She was the one who suggested that his reception was dying altogether, which meant the rest of the Foxes would also know that their reception had died, and not the people themselves. 

It meant they had officially lost their on-call nurse, their ability to quickly communicate problems by taking pictures, their ability to research locations, and the pipe dream of getting in contact with the three other identified safehouses scattered around Columbia. Neil perused his phone, looking at every service he had just lost. His web browser and internet apps came up blank when he tapped on them, but he noticed with some consolation that he could still take pictures. To test it, he took a shot out his passenger window, then snorted as he realized after the fact that there was a zombie dog in the picture. 

“Reception,” Andrew asked.

Neil nodded. “No more reception. I can still take pictures, though.” 

“Junkie,” Andrew said offhandedly. 

Neil frowned at Andrew's profile. How long had it been since he'd heard Andrew call him a junkie? A fortnight? A month? Maybe there was one or two interspersed when he insisted on using an Exy stick in his size to brain zombies with. Even then, he didn't remember hearing it. 

Did he really miss Andrew calling him a junkie? 

Yes. Yes he did. 

 

*** 

For lack of a better thing to do, everyone converged on Eden's for the night. They still had contact with everyone in their system, just to a much more limited capacity. They had split the walkie-talkies between structures rather than Foxes since acquiring the Bank House, so that there was one in the Bank, one in the Store, one in Eden's and one in each car. The one in Eden's passed hands between Anna and Robin, and pretty soon everyone else learned not to ask it back from them. 

Robin, though she liked to hold court over the roof of Eden's whenever possible, absolutely relished every chance she got to distance herself from the place altogether. Neil had to remind himself that her lack of skill when it came to goalkeeping stemmed from a lack of practice, not a lack of strength. She proved herself perfectly good at taking those fast and accurate swings that blew a slightly-decomposed head right off its shoulders. And with the same (uncomfortably hot) combination of under-armor shirt with a leather jacket over the top, under-armor leggings under jeans and boots over ankles, she was as safe as anyone else. The only part of them that ever managed to be exposed was the neck, and even then the turtlenecks on the shirts offered some protection. They had yet to deal with a single bite that amounted to more than wrecked leather. It really showed the benefit of having a tight system. 

Meanwhile, the monsterous donated truck fell quickly out of fashion after the air conditioner broke. Andrew even removed the walkie-talkie. 

Neil let his feet dangle over the edge of the roof at Eden's. The night smelled unusually clear, with the most recent body-burning three days old and few new bodies to speak of. Neil theorized that they had only spread out, but it certainly gave the impression they were thinning in number, and it managed to buoy his mood either way. 

Robin sat on one side of Neil with her legs tucked up to her chin. Kevin was cross-legged on his other side, fiddling with a cigarette, as though he would ever actually consider smoking it. Maybe this whole apocalyptic thing had changed him, though. Maybe he really was considering ruining his lungs. What Exy future did he have now?

That. That was a depressing thought. Neil stared blankly at his phone for a good ten seconds before remembering he couldn't really use it. Somehow, it always wound up in his hands anyway. 

“Max is starting to break down,” Robin commented, as though she were commenting on the unusually good weather. “He's getting twitchy about nothing. I'm toying with the idea of bringing up a mental quarantine so the paranoia doesn't infect everyone.” 

Neil felt a chill creep up his spine at the thought of a riot situation inside one of the safe houses. “Something has to be done, either way. Bring it up. See what Anna thinks.” 

“Is she the end-all, be-all of Eden's security?” Robin sighed. “She's seventeen.” 

“So? You're eighteen.” 

Robin gave an offended huff. “Excuse the fuck out of you for missing my birthday, Josten, but I'm nineteen, thankyouverymuch.” 

“Oh. When was your birthday?” 

“February twenty-seventh.” 

Fuck. What month was it? 

“We're coming up on Baltimore Day,” Kevin supplied, confirming that it was indeed March. “Dan's going to be upset we couldn't even do that group call she was hoping for.” 

Something that had been freezing up in Neil's heart thawed a bit at the reminder of how much Dan wanted to turn Baltimore Day and Neil Josten's birthday into big events, to turn the bad into something good. The fact that she still held onto that was as heartening as it was sad. The Foxes- Neil's family- couldn't reach him anymore. 

“We'll make up for it. How did you celebrate Baltimore Day in the past?” Robin asked. 

“The same. A group call.” 

“Oh. That's creative...?” 

“What were you expecting?” Kevin asked, looking like he already knew the answer and it revolted him. 

Robin gave a Cheshire smile and Neil put a hand up before she had a chance to unsettle his stomach. 

“One year someone sent me a life-sized stand-up cutout of my father as a prank, and we celebrated by burning it,” he told her. “That was the worst... well, the most dramatic celebration.” 

Kevin muttered obscenities under his breath about the cutout while Robin graced Neil with one of her amazed grins. 

“I wish I'd been there for that,” she lamented, a laugh in her voice. “Woulda loved it. I've hated your father since long before I joined the Foxes.”

Kevin gave her an odd look. “You believed the news?” 

Robin shrugged one shoulder. “Sure. I make it a habit to believe what someone says about themselves over what someone else speculates about them. I mean, I know perfectly well people lie. But other people lie about them more.” She gave a sharp laugh and turned to Neil. “Do you remember how I actually learned lip-reading because you didn't tell anyone what you said to Riko Moriyama after the game before he killed himself?” 

“What did I say?” Neil asked curiously. 

“You don't remember?” 

“I was a bit caught up in the moment.” 

Robin grinned like she was about to impart the holy grail of gifts upon him. “If I'm remembering correctly, you said, 'I'd ask you how it feels, but I guess you've always know what it's like to be second, you worthless piece of shit.' End quote.” 

Kevin gave a noise reminiscent of the days when Riko was still alive, but Neil only smiled. 

“No love lost here. Ah, I vaguely remember it. The better image is the way that scoreboard looked with the Fox win on it, though. I'm glad you never told anyone important what I said. I told them I actually felt bad about it.”

“You don't feel bad that Riko killed himself?” Robin asked, the smile slipping off her face a bit, replaced by a look of curiosity. 

Neil couldn't keep the smile off at the memory. It had been pointed out to him before that he only smiled like this- big and genuine, Wymack had said- when he thought about death. But he couldn't fault himself for it. It was always Riko's death he was thinking about. What it meant. 

He glanced around, looking for cameras he knew wouldn't and couldn't be there. His paranoia was years deep, though, so he lowered his voice anyway. “He didn't kill himself. In the interest of full disclosure.” 

This was met by silence, not only from Robin, but from Kevin. Neil looked over to see him scanning Neil's face, eyes narrowed. Looking for evidence of a lie, Neil guessed. 

It looked like they needed to have this conversation. Neil had forgotten about it, assuming Kevin would come to the right conclusion whether or not Neil thought it safe enough to share out loud. 

Neil gazed impassively back at Kevin. It seemed Kevin found what he was looking for there, because he gave a little shiver of horror and backed himself away from the edge of the roof. Neil watched him flee to the ladder, not quite regretting what he said. He regretted the empty space at his left, though. He turned back around and propped his chin in his palm, squinting out over the vast expanse of city-scape spread out before them, setting sun shining in his eyes. 

Though it was clear she wanted to talk about it, Robin wisely let Neil be for a while. When she did start the conversation back up, it was to discuss the mental states of everyone down below, what she thought they should do about it and whether or not she could get it passed by Anna. Neil gratefully let it wash over him, to sooth his frayed nerves. It felt so normal, just to sit around psychoanalyzing with Robin. 

To be honest, Kevin's little freak-out settled his nerves just as much. And to have Andrew resurrect his “junkie” nickname that morning. It called Neil's attention to just how unsettled he had become since the Foxes took that plane without him. 

Since there was no more Foxhole court. 

*** 

Two days later, reception returned. 

Neil almost couldn't believe it. He had been taking a picture of a particularly fresh zombie that they found laying on the ground more-or-less in burial position when he accidentally opened his web browser, only to discover that it actually connected. 

Of course, he wound up dropping his phone on the pavement a moment later as the zombie launched its self at him, but that tussle ended with Neil's hunting knife buried in its skull by way of the space under its chin. That was fast becoming Neil's favorite method of killing zombies from close quarters, since he had watched Renee do it once. Luckily for Neil, his phone was encased in one of those massive, clunky cases that was supposed to be completely shock-resistant. It was, of course, bright orange and adorned with tiny PSU stickers that had been accumulated over the year since he got it. Again, the Foxes managed to protect something of his. 

So the first thing he did after verifying that he really had reception back was to send that picture to Matt, and then put it on twitter with the caption “it wasn't as dead as it wanted to be”. 

The response was instantaneous, but Neil waited until Andrew had them back on the road to the Store House before replying. Every Fox sent him a message within the next hour. Even Chanel, who hadn't bothered with a single text this whole time. Even if that text was “be less stupid”. He counted that as progress. 

Progress. He still cared deeply about bonding with the younger Foxes- integrating them onto the team. Creating stronger teamwork. 

What was worse? The depression he was coming out of, or the delusion that everything was as it used to be? 

Neil shook that question off for later. The Store House was beginning to feel that they had appropriated too small of a grocery store, and that their supplies were running out too quickly. They had begun plotting to take over a different store not too far from there- the one Neil, Kevin and Andrew had bought their first set of supplies from, Neil thought- and were demanding help from the Eden's Guard. Neil didn't mind. He was sure they would have helped anyway. Besides, they took whatever remained in the store once the Store House occupants were gone. 

Later than night, Neil received a text from an unknown number that explained why service had returned to the people of Columbia. The service station had created a connection for the people in the outlying area as well, but it was really by association. They had received heavy pressure from the public to continue proving service to the Columbia, most seemingly, specifically because of Neil's twittter profile.

When Neil opened his twitter account, he found that the company had released a similar explanation on there as well. Neil was proving a public service, they claimed. 

A public service. Neil let out a small, hideous laugh at the thought. His coping mechanism, the one that involved revealing gruesome macabre scenes from the streets of what used to be an American city was considered a public service. 

There was a few ways to take that, maybe. It could have been that people wanted to try to identify what could have been the bodies of their dead friends and family. Given the small area they occupied, Neil put that as the least likely. It seemed more probable that people were responding to the parts of the rescue program they could see from retweets. It was empathy that made them push the company into continuing to allow it, maybe. 

Or maybe this was all just one big horror show for the general populace of the world. Neil wouldn't put it past them. And he wouldn't deprive them, either. 

For the next few days, Neil found himself staring into his phone almost more often than he checked their surroundings for threats. His paranoia was bread right into him from birth, though. He never did let his guard down, these days. 

The zombies themselves- they still came in boom and bust cycles. But with everything as spread-out as it was, there were fewer of them at the worst of times. 

Neil was bored. Robin was bored. Andrew had been bored for weeks. Renee was content but Neil knew she knew she could be doing more. Kevin was stir-crazy and Aaron had stopped showing emotion at some point when Neil wasn't watching. 

It was time for the next step.


	11. Breakout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been forever since I posted so have a double-post :P (they finally do a thing. They do more thing in the next chapter I p r o m i s e)

Not everyone was to know. They went around under the guise of scoping out a new location, but they had settled on a downtown apartment building with restaurants on the ground floor ages ago. It was already being reinforced, people already moving in. The whole process was set to go without them. Neil had found people who would carry on performing rescues in their stead. The body-burnigs had been in the hands of each house for some time now, anyway. The resource train was set up, and the Store House had already made the move into the new location. It hadn’t taken more than a day of back and forth driving to get them there. 

Now the cars were stocked- Andrew’s Maserati and Matt’s truck- with all the supplies they had come in with. All they needed now was a way to get out. Neil had a place in mind, but he didn’t want to start there. 

Instead, they started by tracking down the three other safehouses in Columbia that had been reported on the news so long ago. Since then, having news stations focus on Columbia at all had become a rare thing as the epidemic hit New York and wreaked havoc upon Manhattan. There hadn’t been much warning, they said, but Neil suspected there had really been more than enough. He only needed to imagine the traffic congestion as everyone attempted to flee the city at once before he came to the conclusion that some information had been repressed in order to let specific people out first. 

Out of all the horrors available in an apocalyptic Columbia, there was one thing that seemed to strike a deeper chord with everyone, not only Neil. It wasn’t the bodies of children, which weren't all that common, anyway. It was the desiccated remains of buildings. Not the ones that were abandoned peaceably. The ones with doors broken off their hinges, revealing darkened interiors, sometimes with destruction visible from the road. For some strange reason, just seeing the zombies themselves wasn’t as difficult as facing the signs of humanity in such painful disarray. 

But the zombies themselves? Par for the course. By now nobody screamed or froze at the sight of them. So when they reached what should have been a safehouse on the southern end of Columbia in a broken down old church and found it anything but safe, the effect of the destroyed building was negated somewhat by the fact that it was positively swarming with zombies. 

This was one battle they didn’t need to choose. Not with only the two of them in the car. Silently, Andrew backed is Maserati away from the scene and hit ten over the speed limit on their way back to Eden’s. 

The other two, however, were in perfect working form. They were also intensely distrusting, plainly refusing to so much as crack a window in order to speak with Neil. Neil sacrificed his walkie-talkie to the front steps of the one with the people giving them furtive looks through the window and wrote the one that pelted them with bullets off as a loss. Or, more like, they were lucky none of the bullets cracked Andrew’s back window. That would have meant war. 

That done, Neil and Andrew spent the rest of the time until evening lockdown driving the perimeter of the city yet again. They took a different direction this time, leading them in the direction of the highway. They didn’t feel the need to draw close to the armored trucks and armed officers situated on the off-ramps, though. It seemed just as likely they would be shot at as greeted. 

No other openings presented themselves as they drove. The perimeter of Columbia seemed to be nothing but one long line of fifteen-foot razerwire fence, though they weren't about to drive the whole thing. It was astounding how quickly it had gone up. Neil was sure they could cut it up with a proper set of wire cutters, but they may as well keep the zombies in where they could. 

Back to their original point of entry it was. 

Neil and Andrew returned to Eden’s to weather the nightly lockdown indoors, but they were up bright and early, packing the cars with all the gear they would take with them- a small cache of food, all of the Exy racquets, most of the goods they had brought in from the sporting goods store in Palmetto. They began as soon as there was enough light to see by, and it didn’t take them long. They were in a zombie lull, according to Kevin, who was spotting them from the roof. 

The other occupants of Eden’s couldn't help but notice them. There was still an active watch over the second and third floor balconies overnight and half the people in the place were insomniacs, anyway. Still, nobody thought it particular cause for alarm that the Foxes were gearing up more than usual until everyone was on the other side of the door and Aaron shouted his last goodbyes up the stairs. 

Roland came down the stairs so fast Neil was sure he would fall and break his neck. But he didn't, and he skidded to a stop in front of Aaron, out of breath. 

“L-leaving?” he panted.

Aaron stared impassively back at him in a way that was almost reminiscent of Andrew at this point. Neil hovered in the doorway, wanting to leave but needing to see the outcome of this. 

“Hey- we're not- I mean, we're not going to force you to stay,” Roland said tentatively, eyes glued to Aaron's like he were some sort of wild animal. “I'm just saying, couldn't you give us more warning? You're really leaving right now?” 

“Yes,” Aaron replied, a touch impatiently. 

Roland stared at him, dumbstruck, before finally nodding and moving back. 

Somehow, Neil hadn't expected it to be that easy. They had drawn a crowd on the second floor, but nobody called out to them as they left and locked the door behind them. Neil caught Anna's eye the moment before he swung the door closed. Just long enough to catch the steely, calm expression. Then the door closed, Foxes on one side, refugees on the other. The click of the lock felt larger in Neil's chest. 

They still had phone numbers exchanged, he reminded himself. Not that it would help. Maybe the Foxes could do ammo runs for them. It all depended on what happened next. 

*** 

Neil should be having more of a reaction to this, he thought. 

Andrew's car hummed as it idled. Behind them, Neil could hear Matt's truck still doing the same. The tanks were full, ready to hit the open road. Nothing stood in their way. 

Nothing stood in their way. 

The gates were wide open. The woman Neil had been bribing was not visible, though there were multiple uniform-clad bodies scattered around. Without being close enough to see details, Neil couldn't tell what had done it. It could have been scared civilians, looking for a way out. Neil didn't find that probable, but the idea that the zombies had done it also struck him as wrong. Whatever had done it, they had been so quick and so thorough that the soldiers hadn't had time to call in reinforcements. Or even replacements. The gate was wide-open for any wayward zombie to wander out. 

The static cut on from the walkie-talkie on the dashboard. Renee's voice filtered through, tinnier than it would have sounded otherwise. 

“I think I see the problem. There's nothing we can do. We need to remain in the cars and move on.” 

Neil craned his neck as Andrew pulled through, trying to see what Renee had seen. There was nothing on the ground but flecks of blood, sprinkled in unfamiliar patterns around the bodies. 

Andrew picked up speed as soon as they were past the gate, hitting fifty miles per hour in record time, but remaining at that. Renee kept as close on their bumper as she could with the inferior pickup on the truck. When Neil checked in his rear-view, all he could see were the birds in the tops of the trees. 

Still, he stifled his curiosity until they were well out of range of the battlefield. They were nearly out of the now apparently empty commuter settlements before Neil finally tapped the button on his receiver. 

“What happened?” he asked. 

“Do you remember how the pets in Columbia also became zombies?” Renee asked, sounding a bit more tired than usual. 

Neil felt a chill go up his spine at all the posibilites that opened up. “I remember. What one was it?” 

There was a loaded pause before Renee answered, “the birds.” 

Birds. 

Fucking great. 

Robin leaned forward over the center console, grinning in a way Neil instinctively distrusted. “Do you get the feeling we just moved into that Hitchcock move?” She asked cheerfully. 

“We can hope that distance will help us avoid those in the future,” Renee replied somberly. 

“You guys are no fun,” she laughed. Then she shot Neil a grin like what she used to give him- one that conveyed her understanding at his discomfort and a sheepish lack of regret. Neil didn't mind that she didn't kowtow to him. 

It didn't take long for Andrew to locate the on-ramp onto the highway. There were no cars in evidence along either road, and the two-vehicle caravan moved straight onto the highway heading north without so much as a pause. 

Not that Andrew used to pause, anyway. 

Neil had to admit, there was something cathartic about the open road. There was a reason he and Andrew had spent so much time over the past few years just getting onto an open stretch of highway and going. It didn't matter where. Neil never had to worry about remembering how to get back- not with Andrew in the driver's seat. For a moment, Neil was able to close his eyes and pretend none of this had ever happened. For a moment, he was home. 

Then the walkie-talkie cut on again with a request from Aaron for them to explain exactly where the fuck they were going next. Neil pressed the button and replied only with “New York”, before leaning back in his seat and ignoring all farther inquiries. 

The ride went by surprisingly quickly with no other vehicles on the road. Neil found himself on his phone for all of it, explaining to twitter and the Foxes respectively why forcing people to stay in Columbia meant nothing if the birds were carrying the virus. Responses came in quickly, and, for some reason, Neil couldn’t stand to look at them for too long. He started ignoring them in favor of taking pictures out his window of empty road. He posted those to twitter as well. At some point he remembered that he still needed to correct the contact information on his twitter so that people would stop trying to contact him from Columbia for rescues. Dan’s student Dylan had agreed to become the spokesperson for the Eden’s Guard. Neil suspected he was still going to have to field some calls, but he could deal with that. 

The only things they passed on their way up north was an armored truck and a massive deer carcass on the side of the road. It was nice to see the armored truck, if not the dead deer. It meant the roads were being kept clear so that officers could get from place to place. 

Despite the clear roads and their early start, Neil knew they wouldn’t be making it to their destination tonight. It seemed like a very bad idea to storm into New York City in the dark with a full day’s travel behind them. No, it was better to rest up just outside. 

For a moment, Neil had the disjointed feeling he had walked into one of the Monsters’ video games. There would be a save point before the boss battle. 

He shook that off, but it took a bit of effort. 

Nothing seemed to change drastically for the first several hours after crossing into New York, though the cars had been shoved to the outer lane here when the road had been clear before. Neil stared at the abandoned vehicles- everything one would expect to see on the highway, semi trucks included- and analyzed them for clues as to the circumstances of their abandonment. There were two lanes worth of cars here, leaving only the left one open. There were no people in sight. Neil was glad for that in terms of competition for the one remaining lane, but it left him with too many questions and nobody to answer them. 

Logically speaking, the drivers had not simply died here. There would have been bodies visible somewhere. But how could several hundred people simply abandon their vehicles in the middle of a six lane highway and be nowhere in sight? 

Neil glanced to the other side of the road and increased his estimate. It was much the same going the other direction. He hadn’t noticed any blockades in the road farther back that would stop the cars from moving, so there likely wasn’t one in the northbound lanes, either. 

He wasn’t quite willing to bet on that, though. 

They had long since crossed through North Carolina and were well on their way through Vermont when the cars started. Miles stretched by with no change, short of a little extra elbow room in some places. The government vehicles must have been keeping the road clear for their own use, but those were nowhere in sight. By the time Kevin started rumbling about turning off the intestate to avoid Baltimore, Neil’s nerves were shot. 

“Shut up,” he snapped, gripping his phone a little too tightly. “You’re being ridiculous. There’s no reason for me to freak out just because we passed a few signs with the word ‘Baltimore’ on them. It’s been goddamn years, Kevin.” 

“I’m aware of how long it’s been, Neil,” Kevin said in credibly level tones. Credible because he was actually trying, that was. “And it’s been years since I was at Evermore, but I’ll still need a nightlight from time to time. Recovery isn’t a-” 

“It doesn’t matter if I have a panic attack over this, I’m not in the driver’s seat. And we have no guarantee that any other highway would be clear, so leave it.” 

Kevin was silent a moment, but Neil knew he wasn’t done. Sure enough, Kevin piped back up a moment later. 

“You haven’t been completely right lately, Neil.” 

Neil had no response for that. Of course he wasn’t quite right. The world was ending in a slow deterioration that would have them all meet violent and disgusting ends. Odds were good it would reach the rest of the Foxes eventually and the odds that the people in this car and the truck behind would make it out alive were damn near nothing. 

“What if we just make Neil close his eyes? Or switch to the backseat?” Robin asked, possibly meaning to be helpful but more likely just being snarky. 

“What if Neil got left the fuck alone until we were past Baltimore?” Neil deadpanned, attention already back on his phone. 

A silence followed, but Neil barely noticed. He had his twitter open to ask if anyone knew what happened to the people from the cars, but he wound up distracted by misplaced pleas for help from the Columbia area. He redirected those promptly to Dylan in Eden’s, allowing himself to be absorbed by it for a while. 

It didn't matter. He told himself it didn't matter, because it was true. It didn't. No matter what had happened in Baltimore, ancient or recent past, it had no effect on Neil anymore. If he stopped looking out his window at the twenty mile mark and stopped looking up from his phone at all at fifteen, it had nothing to do with the scars on his face and arms. 

Then it occurred to him. 

Baltimore was the kind of place where people went to die. 

"Andrew," he said suddenly, hearing the smile in his voice. "Take the exit." 

Andrew cast him an unimpressed sideways look, but said nothing, most likely waiting for Kevin to pick up the slack. The next exit was the first one in to Baltimore, and Neil knew he wasn't getting them in without a fight. 

"No," was all Kevin had to say. He managed to say it incredibly scathingly, though. 

Robin leaned between the seats again, a look of rare genuine concern on her face. "Can I ask why you launched yourself off the crazy cliff all of a sudden?" 

Neil glanced at her, then focused his attention on the signs flying past. "Its as good a place as New York. They're under quarantine as well, remember. 

"Imagine trying to fence off a city the size of Baltimore," Robin commented, though she sounded like she was hedging at something. "Anyways. Completely batshit." 

"Symbolic importance," Neil muttered into the window. 

"No, actually, I find it highly symbolically important that we die anywhere besides Baltimore," Kevin threw in. "Literally any other place on the planet." 

"Except maybe Evermore?" 

"Shut up, Robin. It's more complicated than that." 

"We break it down by types of trauma," Neil confirmed. "Death is not for Ravens."

"That-"Robin cut off. Neil wasn't watching, but he heard her slump back in her seat. Mulling it over, he guessed. 

Kevin gave the most irritable throat-clearing Neil had heard in years. "So we're decided." 

Neil couldn't keep the smile off his face, but if it was anything like the feeling inside of him, it was a twisted thing. "I want Baltimore to be our next stop. I'm not going to change my mind." 

Kevin leaned between the seats so fast Neil actually flinched, but he was just grabbing the walkie-talkie from the dashboard. Neil steadfastly ignored him as he pressed down the "talk" button and explained to Renee and Aaron what they were arguing over. Expecting backup, Neil thought. Neil also thought he wasn't going to get it. 

Sure enough, Kevin's statement was met by silence. It took nearly a minute (during which they passed another turnoff) for either to respond, and when they did, it was Aaron telling them he couldn't give an honest flying fuck if they made their last stand directly in the firey pits of hell at this point. He topped it off by informing Kevin to just let Neil shoot himself out if Neil was so bent on self-destruction.

Renee followed with a much more sedate statement, but it came out to mean about the same. That she thought objectively that Baltimore was as good a place as any, and that if this was what Neil wanted, then it was up to him. 

Neil smirked out his window as Kevin hucked the walkie-talkie back onto the dashboard. 

"Stop that," Kevin snapped. "They don't know you like we do. It wasn't up to them." 

"Then why'd you call them?" Neil threw back. 

Neil could feel Kevin's glare on the back of his turned head, but he didn't bother facing him. "If you would be neutral on going to Baltimore if it weren't for me, then it's my choice. I choose to go. So lets take one of these off ramps, why don't we?"

"Batshit," Robin muttered. 

Andrew turned his turn signal on and hit the brakes just in time to hit the next off-ramp at a halfway sane speed. Neil grinned into the window.


	12. Baltimore Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't tell if this chapter is good or if I just like it 'cuz it's new. Both maybe? Anyway, it's got all my favorite stuff in it, so the usual TW for gore but I also managed to fit the phrase "octopus cuddler" in so there's that to look forward to

Baltimore was teeming with activity. Neil's first reaction was elation at seeing so much to work with, and then the disappointment set in when he realized what was going on. 

Neil didn't know exactly what branch of the US Army they were looking at, but it was clear enough that Baltimore was a city at war

Renee road Andrew's bumper from the first turnoff into the city, where nothing seemed to move, alive or dead. The inactivity didn't last long. The road they came out on was a twisting, overgrown thing that soon let out into a broad city street filled with busted out neon signs and broken glass thrown over the road. Neil winced as they drove over it, praying the tires didn't pop, but they kept going forward. Smoke filled the air from somewhere to their left, and Neil almost suggested they turn off to find out what was on fire, but it soon became apparent that there were small fires in every direction. They wouldn't have to be especially picky to reach one. 

The static on the walkie-talkie turned on again. "I take it back," came Aaron's voice. "There's better places to be right now." 

Neil couldn't agree less, but he knew the others were still running on a sense of self-preservation, and he could at least sympathize. He turned his attention back to the road, this time looking for a safer place to be. Something on their right moved, and Neil looked just in time to catch a heard of zombie scrabbling around a dumpster before the building blocked it from view. 

"What was that?" he demanded. He clicked the receiver on. "Renee, did you see the dumpster?" 

"I did," she replied, staticy and grave. "I think someone was inside." 

"You want to turn back," Andrew stated. 

"Just pull up and I'll shoot from the window." 

Andrew pulled a U-turn and Renee followed suit while Neil rolled down his window. He could see Aaron with his window down and his gun out, waiting for Neil to be inevitably swamped. Robin shifted into the middle of the seat. 

Neil counted off six zombies- one zombie more than he had bullets for ready to go. He pulled out the next magazine and put it within easy reach before shooting out the zombie that had its hand under the dumpster lid. 

Everything was a frenzy from there. The zombies made for Neil at the sound of his gun and he had only killed one more before they were on him. Aaron took another out with three rounds and Neil had his knife under another one's jaw before Andrew hit the gas, making one fly off but leaving Neil wrestling with the last. He tried wrenching its head back by the hair, but the hair parted from the head too easily and Neil was down to punching it until it lost its grip. Its face caved first. Never had Neil been more glad to be wearing gloves. 

Andrew drifted his U-turn just before they hit the broken glass and narrowly avoided hitting the curb as they raced back to kill the last standing zombie. Aaron got there first, knocking it back with his door and bringing his racquet straight down on its head. 

If there was any consolation to zombie brains, it was that they were never fresh enough to splatter the way a human's did. 

Andrew hit the brakes hard as he drew parallel to the truck. Robin was already throwing on her leathers in the back seat while Neil re-loaded his gun. Robin and Aaron made for the dumpsters with racquets in hand and Neil's gun at their back. The remaining three kept lookout in different directions. 

Robin's voice was carrying enough for Neil to hear the words when she knocked on the dumpster, asking if anyone was alive inside. 

A loaded second passed before Aaron brought his racquet up with both hands, ready to strike, and Robin threw the lid open. 

Something inside the dumpster made a tiny sound that Neil couldn't make out from the distance, but Aaron and Robin seemed startled by it. They moved forward to to edge of the dumpster to peer inside. Robin lowered her racquet in to prod at something at the bottom. 

Neil could feel himself getting progressively more antsy. "Just grab them," he called, frustrated. 

Aaron shot N  
eil a look over his shoulder while Robin practically hopped inside the dumpster to reach the person at the bottom. When she came back out, Neil saw the problem.

It was a cat. 

Neil covered his eyes with his one non-zombie brained glove. They had just risked life and limb and dirtied equipment they couldn't easily clean for a cat. 

"Bring it," he choked. "Just keep it." 

The cat came with Robin into the Maserati. Neil kicked at the car's tires as he waited for them, partially to burn frustration, partly looking for leaks from the glass. His mood was barely improved by the feel of full, un-punctured tires. 

"It's cute," Robin commented as she ignored the cat's piteous and pathetically cute meowing to check it for bites. 

"It's going to be goddamn infectious," Kevin shot back, fidgeting with the strings on Robin's unused racquet. 

Neil pulled his glove off and turned it inside out, then, after a moment's thought, removed his jacket as well. "I want us to have a backup set of equipmet," he muttered. 

"What, so we'll survive longer?" Robin replied dryly. 

Kevin gave an offended huff. "There's nothing wrong with trying to survive. Why shouldn't we? Why, if survival isn't important, don't we all just go out there and-" 

"Kevin." 

Kevin cut off at the sound of Andrew's voice. When Neil checked him in the rear-view, he looked more than a little harried, but his jaw was clenched shut. 

The cat gave another piteous whine. Neil wondered where it had come from. If it had belonged to someone nice before this. 

Neil had always wondered what it would be like to own a pet. He never had. Not even back when he lived... here. In Baltimore. 

Here. 

Baltimore was here. 

Neil leaned his forehead against the cool glass of his window, wondering when he should expect the panic to set in. He didn't feel it yet. 

"There's a hotel," Andrew commented as they passed one. He didn't slow. It was as close as he ever got to suggesting he was tired. 

Neil closed his eyes. "We should probably sleep in the cars. If we can find an info center to get a map of the city, we should grab one." 

"What, you don't have a photographic memory of your childhood haunts?" Robin asked from the back seat, though there was no heart behind it. 

Neil shuddered. "No. We won't need to go to any of those." 

It wasn't too late in the evening yet. The sun was about two hours from the horizon. Neil resumed his picture taking as they drove around, inspecting the damage, cataloguing places where humans seemed to still be living and places where the clearly were not. Everything seemed to be one or the other. There were very few places to speak of without zombies, blocked-in and visibly paranoid civilians or well-armed soldiers, the last of which obviously favored holing up in government buildings. 

Neil knew they must be drawing strange looks for driving around the way they were, but nobody got out a shotgun and beyond that Neil didn't care. 

They wound up at a gas pump to sleep that night after casually raiding the food supply inside the store. It wasn't really an ideal place to sleep, but there really weren't any of those no matter where they looked. They weren't going to luck out with a second round of Eden's Twilight. That Neil was sure of. 

After a cursory check of their surroundings, the Foxes settled into their respective cars to sleep. Robin retreated into Matt's crew cab with Renee and Aaron to let Kevin, Neil and Andrew sleep alone together. Again, it was thoughtful, but not especially necessary. Especially when she left the cat behind. Not that the cat was in any way obtrusive with a belly full of wet gas station cat food. 

Neil did however elect to join Kevin in the back seat rather than reclining in the passenger like Andrew did with the driver's seat. Kevin complained about Neil hogging the seat for a few minutes, then shifted so that Neil was lying on top of him instead, and promptly fell silent. Neil found that exasperating, considering the number of times Kevin had woken with a dead limb and refused to share a bed with Neil for days because of it. Even though Kevin was the octopus cuddler, as Nicky once lovingly termed it. 

Nicky. Neil hadn't checked back in with him on more than a superficial level since their heart-to heart back when Neil first got into Eden's. He pulled up his phone and dimmed the screen, but not fast enough to avoid the grumbles from Kevin. 

"I swear to God if you're sleep-deprived tomorrow because you stayed up on you're phone-" the rest of the threat devolved into senseless grumbling, and Neil would have ignored it either way. He sent a text to Nicky, unwilling to make the phone call while Andrew and Kevin were unable to avoid eavesdropping, then switched to texting with Matt, just because he could. 

Neil spent the next hour or so dodging every question about where they wound up for the night and listening to Matt go on endlessly about how great Dan was in return. All in all, it was more than enough to lull him to sleep, zombie-riddled death city and all. 

*** 

Neil awoke the next morning to the feeling of the car being jostled. He cracked one eye and stretched until his hand landed on fur, then blinked at the shadow swaying across the cat's off-white back on the floor of the car. 

Neil had a bad feeling about this. He thought he should grab his gun, just in case. 

And he was right. When he looked up, it was to see a nearly-expired zombie with most of its face rubbed off, apparently trying to loose the rest of it up against their window. Neil stared at it in dismay before pulling out his phone and taking several pictures, somehow capturing the moment the zombie lost a tooth in the process. Then he pulled out his gun, checked the ammo and rolled the window down.

If the zombie hadn't been blown to bits instantly, Neil might have been more concerned when Kevin launched upright, making Neil drop the gun onto his head. Cursing from the front seat indicated Andrew wasn't doing much better. 

The walkie-talkie buzzed on a moment later. "What was that?!" demanded Robin's voice. 

Kevin buried his face in his hands, and Neil was now pinned uselessly against the opposite door from the still-open window, so Andrew was the one to answer. 

"Neil is a piece of shit," was all he said. 

Yeah. He probably should have woken them up first. He hadn't thought of it. 

The damage was done, though. He wriggled free of Kevin's spiteful grip so he could close the window before the cat got its wits back enough to bolt, then turned back to patiently dissociate his way through Kevin's wrath. 

Kevin's wrath, unfortunately, did not come. Instead, it had morphed a strange look, which Neil was in no way in the mood for. 

"I'm going for food," he said, opening the door without even turning to look out the window first. "Might as well eat it while it's here and keep our stores up." 

Andrew followed him out and did the cursory check for them while Neil avoided stepping on his decaying kill. He looked more than a little pissed at Neil's wakeup call, but said nothing as he lead the way to the front doors, gun in hand. Neil remembered belatedly that he was unarmed. He wasn't even wearing the gloves he usually kept on all the time. 

Fortunately, there were more gloves inside, but of a plastic-y, work glove variety. Neil didn't like them, but he'd rather not get picky. They were sturdy enough. He pocketed the pair before moving on to grab some peanuts they had missed the previous day. Andrew planted himself in front of the doors while he busted open a box of chocolate milk duds and poured them out into his mouth. In full view of Kevin, Neil thought, though he doubted that was the actual point. Kevin had been silent about their diets since Exy stopped being a concern. 

Andrew glanced Neil's way and Neil shoved a stick of jerky into his mouth before Andrew had time to ask him any questions he wouldn't have an answer for. 

It had to come, though. Neil knew a downward spiral when he felt one. Andrew wasn't going to let him off the hook until he had his answers. 

Neil finished his jerky and Andrew finished his milk duds before Andrew slipped back out of view of the door. Neil cracked open a vitamin water and started chugging, but Andrew pinned him with a look that said he knew exactly what Neil was doing and wasn't remotely impressed. 

Guilty, Neil lowered the bottle and set it aside, crossing his arms protectively across his chest.

Andrew waited only a moment before he broke the silence himself. 

"Was it a bad choice to come here." 

Neil didn't think it was, but he didn't know how to explain what had caused this. The situation, the lack of hope, the one good crutch that could fall out from under him at any moment. He shook his head. 

Andrew continued to stare him down for another few seconds. Then he moved forward, crowding into Neil's space. His fingers pulled down on the collar of Neil's shirt and Neil closed his eyes against the familiar sensation. He felt more at home in that moment than he could have if he were standing on the half court line with a racquet in his hand. 

"Do not let yourself loose control. This is not the end. We are here to kill zombies and protect survivors. We are not here to die. Do you understand?" 

For a moment, Neil really didn't. He wondered how he could have misinterpreited Andrew's signs. How he could have assumed they were all ready to die when they signed up for this. Then it struck him that Andrew wasn't being entirely truthful. 

Of course. It wasn't Andrew's way to lie, but it wasn't Neil's way to fire a gun without warning the others first. Just like it wasn't Aaron's way to play the hero, but he had jumped out of the truck to kill that zombie earlier, even though he hadn't strictly needed to. It wasn't like Renee to let the others wallow in doubt, but Neil hadn't heard a single platitude out of her in a long time. 

This was what it took to keep an even keel. Lying to themselves. It was what Andrew was asking of him, and Neil was going to do it. 

He swallowed around the lump in his throat and nodded. 

They were going to live.

**** 

Neil pilfered a couple of maps from the gas station before they headed out for the day. For the first time in what felt like ages, his mind was abuzz with escape routes and contingency plans, mental inventories and next steps. 

First, they were going to need a safehouse. It wasn't going to be so easy this time. 

The streets were fuller today than the day before with lines of armored trucks that they had to pull off the road to avoid. The zombies seemed to act differently than the Columbia ones at first with the way they frequently moved in packs, but Robin pointed out pretty quickly they were always following something when they clumped like that. Within their first hour back on the road, they had already watched two dogs get chased down and eaten by a mob the Foxes didn't even consider going up against. They were lucky enough just to speed away with minimal chasing. 

The destruction was everywhere they looked, from blood on the windows of parked cars where an obviously living human had been shot to intentional-looking piles of corpses laying open on the pavement, swarming with flies. Neil found himself grinding his teeth every time he saw a pile like that. If they were going to pile them up, the least they could do was light it up when they were done.

Maybe it was that the zombies were too numerous. The Foxes found two defunct police cars pulled up onto the sidewalk. They drew the Foxes' attention by their movement, but when Andrew pulled up alongside one, they found the caged back seats had been writhing with zombies. The Foxes moved on. 

Neil waged a mental war with himself as they drove. On the one hand, Neil knew why his coping habits had taken the turn they did, and he knew he needed to keep looking towards the future if he didn't want to fall back into his rut. That meant avoiding the crutch that enabled him to do that avoiding. 

On the other, some of the stuff in the streets of Baltimore was too damn grizzly not to document. Against his better judgement, Neil found himself slipping off his bulky gardening gloves to take the shot. 

They were still in a run-down side of town, needing to find their way to something built a bit sturdier before settling in. Neil kept his map open in his lap. All decision-making power in terms of which road they turned down was in his control, lest they come upon something familiar and unsavory. Neil thought the best way to avoid that was simply to remain in the low-rent neighborhoods until they hit the downtown area. They would start scoping out buildings at that point. 

And there was where things didn't go at all according to plan. 

It was a hotel. Exactly the kind Neil had been looking for all along, Standing free with great expanses of parking lot on three sides. He knew that type; he'd been inside before. He was willing to bet there was a balcony overlooking a vast ground floor. He could already see how they were going to go about blocking the additional exits, how the store down the road probably still had some non-contaminated canned goods... 

And then someone inside the hotel started shooting at them. 

Andrew hit reverse so fast it made Kevin fly forward in his seat, but it wasn't fast enough to stop the bullet from cracking through the windshield, narrowly missing Neil's hand on the center console. Renee somehow got the truck out ahead of the Maserati, but Neil could already see two bullet holes in the tailgate as the peeled out. 

"Fuck," Robin said with heat. "Who the Fuck!?" 

Neil closed his eyes and breathed deeply, counting to ten and down again in German. "Army occupied. I saw the truck in the side lot, but I didn't think they were inside." 

The trucks had been everywhere since entering Baltimore. If every location near an army truck would be like that, then there was little to no hope of ever finding a place to camp out in Baltimore. 

"The fuck do they have against live civillians?" Kevin hissed, leaning between the front seats to inspect the window. "This is horrible. The glass is broken, one hard hit and this entire window will shatter." 

"And they spooked the cat," Robin commented, pointing at the truck in front of them, where the cat clung fully-puffed to the back of the cab seat. 

Neil sucked in one last breath and checked his phone. It wasn't well-charged, but he had one of those chargers that took in light from the window, so he ignored it to pull up his camera app. He took one well-aimed picture of the window and uploaded it to twitter with the caption: "The army presence in Baltimore doesn't seem to like us very much. A zombie could bust this in easy". Then he put the phone away to inspect that damage again. 

"We'll start with glue," Neil said, grasping at solutions like they were his last shred of sanity. "We can jack some other car if we absolutely have to. I know how." 

Neil was keenly aware of Andrew in the seat beside him, but both of them knew that in a bind, the cars would be the first things to go. This was better than a bullet wound. Neil sighed and picked up the walkie-talkie. 

"Any injuries up there?" he asked, unable to keep the fatigue out of his voice. 

"No," Renee responded promptly. "But I think the truck was hit a few times. I want to pull over as soon as we can to make sure the gas tank hasn't been hit." 

Neil screwed up his eyes, trying to figure out where the gas tank would be on a pickup truck. "Yeah, you're right. We need to check this car too." 

"Were any of you injured?"

"No." 

Neil set the radio back down and started watching for a place to stop. They were nearing the downtown proper by this point and large open spaces weren't easy to come by. They wound up settling for a Walmart parking lot, quite likely the last before grocery stores gave way to office buildings and comunity hubs. They checked the lot thoroughly, this time looking for armored trucks as well as mobile meat. Tensions were high as everyone got out of the cars to walk around them. 

On top of the busted out windsheild, Andrew's car had also popped a flat. Whether that happened because of bullets or the condition of the road remained to be seen, but it didn't matter. They had to change it. 

But the car was new, so the spare was where it was supposed to be in the trunk. The tools could be found in Matt's truck. All of them, that was, except for the jack. Something that couldn't be replaced by heavy books or cinder blocks, because they had none of these things.   
Neil cast a dubious look at the Walmart, but one glance told him there would be no entering. The front doors were blocked off from the outside and the sillouettes of what was inside made Neil think it was no band of refugees within. He repressed a shudder and firmly turned his back. 

This tactic explained all the fires. Clearly, the army was luring the zombies into buildings and blocking off all exits, then burning the place to the ground. Neil couldn't say he was against it. Just that at this point he was far from willing to give the Army credit for any small successes. If they wanted to replace Andrew's car, that would be more like it. 

There wasn't much they could do for Andrew's car at this point. It would be much easier to jack a new one than try to lift the car by hand for the entire time it took someone to change a tire. The much easier solution was for everyone to pile their remaining belongings into Matt's truck and strike out for a new lot. 

It was a damn good thing Matt's truck was a crew cab, because if they had to make the drive in the open bed of the pickup, Neil would be placing their chances of survial very low indeed. 

Andrew put his phone to use for the first time in at least a week that Neil knew of to locate the nearest car dealership so that they could head straight there. He found one in comfortable proximity and Renee got the truck on what remained of the road. 

As it was, the ride was every bit as uncomfortable as it was depressing. Renee and Aaron kept their seats in the front while Robin, Neil, Andrew and Kevin all piled into the back, Neil predictably perched in Kevin's lap. The duffel bags had to go with them, and they wound up piled under Aaron, Robin and Andrew's feet. Neil kept his in his lap while Robin let the cat settle in hers, despite the high clawing risk. He also kept his phone yet again in his hand, and he caught both Andrew and Kevin side-eyeing it as he typed, but he paid them no mind. This time, he was actually using it for the sole purpose of communication. 

The world as seen through Neil's twitter account was in an uproar that Neil Josten, traveling with Kevin Day and several other smaller name Exy stars, was shot at by law enforcement. Neil casually put out that they had been forced to abandon Andrew's expensive car as a result of bullets hitting the rear, which they weren't immediately aware of. It was a bit of a stretch to claim it was definitely the bullets that popped the tire, but Neil felt not an ounce of remorse. Seeing the public anger on his behalf for once had him feeling surprisingly vindicated. 

Neil realized his mistake when the phone started vibrating in his hand, a familiar number on the screen. He had forgotten to tell the Foxes that they were in Baltimore. He glanced to his right to confirm with Andrew that he actually had to pick it up, then sighed at the pointed nod he got in return. He answered the call and put the phone up to his ear. 

"Hi Coach." 

"Neil, gor the love of God. Tell me you are not where you said you are." 

Neil bit his lip. Over the past few years, it had gotten harder and harder to lie to Coach. And not just because Coach always saw through it. 

"Sorry, Coach. We're in Baltimore right now." 

Neil caught an earful of static at Coach's explosive sigh. Grumbling followed, and Neil could practically see him pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache. 

Finally, Coach said, "I have no idea why you thought that was a good idea. Better yet, I have no idea why you're out there risking life and limb instead of being safe over here with the rest of your team. But-" he hesitated, and Neil reached behind him to find Kevin's hand. 

"It's your choice. You know what you need to get out of this. Keep in contact. And make Andrew call me," he threw in as an afterthought. 

"Or take a goddamn picture, I don't care. I'm half-convinced he's secretly dead." 

Neil nodded, even though Coach couldn't see it. They were pulling up to a promising looking lot with relatively clean looking new cars parked in rows. "I'll see what I can do. Take care, coach. We need to get us a new car." 

Coach made an exasperated noise. "And you're gonna steal it?" 

"Yeah." Neil almost smiled. "No reason not to." 

Neil hung up as Renee pulled the truck into the lot, driving slowly through the parked cars to give Andrew a good look at his options. Andrew said nothing in response, but Neil saw the way his eyes skimmed over the windshields lined up before them. 

Any one of them, free of charge. Andrew hadn't called out in favor of any in particular by the time Renee reached the office, so she put the truck in park and checked her equipment, clearly meaning to go out. 

"Think we can break into there without raising any alarms?" Neil asked. "We could probably get our hands on the keys if it were possible. I don't want to suddenly be swamped because we set off these alarms instead of just hot-wiring one." 

"Hotwiring is inconvenient and unreliable," Renee pointed out. "But I agree with you. I think I can certainly try. Kevin, will you take the driver seat in case we need a quick getaway?" 

Kevin grunted in affirmation. He gave Neil one last squeeze before letting go so Neil could hop out, then climbing out himself to let Andrew through. Neil came armed with his gun, Andrew with a racquet. They stood with their backs to the wall on either side of Renee while she worked the lock with Neil's lock-pick set. 

Against all odds, within a few minutes the three of them were inside, blocking the door up behind them. If the zombies swamped them, inside the building would be much less safe than the inside of a car, where they could pull away and leave the threat behind. They didn't need to worry about the rest they left out there. 

Out of the three of them, the only one who had ever been inside a dealership to get a new car was Andrew, who had done it twice. For someone with a memory like his, once would have done just as well. He scanned the sitting area and made his way to a doorway between two of the desks, which was of course locked. Renee had it open quicker than that last one, though, and suddenly they were confronted with rows and rows of keys. 

Neil almost laughed. Picking and choosing seemed ridiculous at this point. Much more logical was to simply stuff their pockets with as many as they could carry and hope they worked. With cars this high-end, they didn't need to match key to ignition, strictly speaking. If the bag full of keys contained the correct one for the car, then the car would work. These were the remote-activated ones. 

So Neil did just that while Andrew selected a specific one off the pegboard wall. Then the three left the room, closing the door behind them. 

There was a zombie lurking behind the truck, no doubt in Kevin's blind spot when the three returned to the glass doors. Neil and Andrew exchanged a glance, deciding who was going to deal with it. Andrew was, of course. His weapon made much less noise. And Neil would defend his flank. 

Andrew kicked the office chair barricading them in to the side and flung the doors wide, letting the zombie come to him. But the zombie didn't take the bait, more interested in tentatively touching Matt's truck. Neil's hand itched for his phone. It was picture-perfect. 

Andrew waited another few seconds before shrugging and going after the Zombie himself, swinging the racquet with the precision of a professional golf player hitting a golf ball off a tee. Then Robin threw the door open to admit them and they all piled into the back seat.  
Kevin pulled away as soon as the door was closed. 

Neil looked back at Robin. In the confusion, he had wound up sitting in her lap. She was tall enough that it put their eyes level for once. 

"I could probably sit on Andrew," Neil offered lightly. 

Robin snorted. "Yeah, I bet you could." 

Her suggestive eye-wiggle was not welcome at this close a proximity. 

Fortunately, Andrew cut into the awkwardness by directing Kevin to which car he wanted, and they were there in a matter of seconds. Andrew jumped out before the truck was fully stopped and used the key he had grabbed to open it. The tag on it must have corresponded to the license plate, Neil realized. Andrew wouldn't have any trouble matching them. 

Andrew then took the car for a short ride around the lot before deciding it was a keeper. It, like his last two cars, was a monsterous black beast that could probably drive fast enough to outrun any thoughts. But at least this time the trunk space was better. The Foxes wasted no time getting as many of their valuables as possible into the trunk and locking it. The gas station across the street provided a full tank-up at the cost of Renee's instincts cutting in against a particularly tall zombie and Andrew winding up having to stab the brain in through the eye with a bowie knife while Renee was stuck holding it in a headlock. Neil did not envy her. 

But there was only one zombie at the gas station and only one at the dealership. The few blocks in either direction had a smattering of dead bodies, but nothing like what they had grown used to. Neil couldn't help compare it to sitting just outside the fire while sparks singe holes into your clothes. The matter wasn't if this was all, but which direction the fire was in. 

The Foxes had gotten an early start to their day, so by this point it was late in the afternoon, and everyone was ready for some food. They considered busting into this new gas station for some more quick food, but they made the mistake of having Neil pick the lock, and he wound up tripping the alarm. They fled the lot pretty quick after that. Neil had the dubious pleasure of watching as the zombies convirged on the shop from places he hadn't even considered they could be hiding. 

He turned away as yet another shiver ran up his spine. 

Neil was dreading spending another night in this horror city in the cars. He wanted to find a place to put down roots, and fast. Homelessness wasn't safe at the best of times. They couldn't go on much longer like this. 

That was how the Foxes wound up in the lot of another hotel, almost identical to the last but for a reduced space for parking. It wasn't great for burning zombie bodies, but that was the least of their problems now. 

It took them two hours of careful examination, but to Neil's relief, this seemed to be exactly what he'd been hoping for.


End file.
